Hi Helen,

thanks for your detailed reply,

> At 12:54 PM 13/08/2003 +0200, you wrote:
> >Hi all,
> >
> >I'm trying to install firebird on a webserver that has suse linux 8.1
> >pre-installed. I've tried the following firebird versions:
> >FirebirdCS-1.0.2.908-1.i386.rpm
> >FirebirdCS-1.0.3.972-0.i386.rpm
> >FirebirdCS-1.5.0.3773-RC5.i686.rpm
> >
> >I uninstalled previous versions with YaST2. Then I did "rpm --install
> ><package file>".
> >
> >From a SSH console I can connect locally using this ISQL command:
> >connect /usr/local/firebird/examples/employee.gdb;
> >
> >But if I put "localhost" or the server's ip address in front of the
> >connection string I get the message
> >"failed to establish a connection, connection actively refused". I get
> >the same error when connecting from a windows machine using Jason's
> >IB_SQL.
>
> It would not be possible to use "localhost" as the server name if
> connecting from a remote client (such as IB_SQL or isql running on a
> Windows machine).

Sorry if I was unclear in my post: I only used localhost from
within the SSH session. When connecting from a different machine
I used the server's IP address.

> If you do not have DHCP running in your network, you
> will need to place the host IP address in the HOSTS file on the
> client.

My machines aren't on the same network. Firebird is running on a
dedicated webserver I've rented using a static IP address and
IB_SQL runs on my own Windows machine that gets its IP address
dynamically assigned by my ISP.
Currently I don't have a internet domain name assigned to the
web server.

> For example, here I have IB_SQL connecting to Firebird servers on
> two Linux hosts. In the HOSTS file I have the following entries:
>
> 10.12.13.3 coolduck # the Mandrake box
> 10.12.13.5 mini # the RedHat box

In IB_SQL I didn't specify a hostname for the server, only its IP
address. But adding the line

213.bla.bla.bla amlinux # web server

to the (Windows) HOSTS file didn't help neither: With the connection
string in IB_SQL being "amlinux:/usr/local/firebird/examples/employee.fdb"
I get the error message "Unable to complete network request to host
"amlinux". Failed to establish a connection. No connection could be
made because the target machine actively refused it."

With connection string "<IP
address>:/usr/local/firebird/examples/employee.fdb"
I get the same error except that "amlinux" is replaced with the IP
address I specified.

> The server needs to know its own IP address. That should have been done
> as a step during your installation, but you can go and do it with YaST2.

It was done and I've checked it just now. Host name is set to "amlinux"
and the domain is "local" - which was the default setting already.

> Now, getting back to local loopback server - for e.g. connecting with isql
> on the server machine. Check your hosts file and make certain that you
> have a hosts entry there for it:
> 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain

Yes, it's there.

> >Specifying username and password doesn't help neither.
>
> If you are trying to make a remote connection, you will need username and
> password. Note that the SYSDBA password might not be 'masterkey'. If you
> don't recall setting a password during installation, then it will be set
> to a special one that was generated during installation. Go to
> /usr/local/firebird and open the file SYSDBA.password with pico or another
> text editor to see what it is. In the /bin directory you will find the
> changeDBAPassword.sh script which you can run in place
> (./changeDBAPassword.sh) if need be.

With Firebird 1.5 I already changed the auto-generated password with
the script you mentioned above.

> >I don't have any firewall running on the server. The problem seems to be
> >that the server process isn't started but I don't know why. I've checked
> >the config files for inetd and xinetd and they look exactly like it's
> >described in the readme file. The server process won't start even after
> >a reboot of the linux machine.
>
> On Classic, there is no server process to start. xinetd runs, and listens
> for connection requests. It will start up one fb_inet_server process for
> each individual connection, on an as-required basis.

It seems to me that xinetd isn't listening on port 3050.
If I check this (as described in the pretty old readme file) with
netstat -an | grep 3050
I can't see anything listening on port 3050.

At least xinetd is running - I checked it with "ps -ef | grep xinetd".

As the readme file suggests I tried to connect with telnet to port 3050.
But both - telnet from within the SSH session on the server and telnet
from the command line of my windows machine - give me the error
"connection refused".

> >I've followed all steps in the README.user.troubleshooting file but I
> >still cannot connect using a hostname or ip address in the connection
> >string.
>
> That readme is pretty old...

A passage that scares me is where it says "Most network connect
problems come down to the /etc/hosts.equiv file. It needs to
have the host from which you want your clients to connect
from in it."
Is this really true? I want to be able to connect from every where I
have internet access to my Firebird server. I cannot put all possible
client host names an IP addresses into the server's hosts.equiv file.

> heLen

Thanks a lot,
Markus