Johan van Zyl schrieb:

> 1. Can a Firebird database succesfully be run on Win 98 as FILESERVER (Peer
> to Peer)?

Peer-to-Peer is possible on embedded firebird only, this implys that
only one client does open the database any time.

> 2. Can this Win 98 Server also be used as a workstation at the same time?
> How would I manage that? (With GREAT difficulty<g>)

You can install the server on a Workstation. But you might run into
trouble if some application does crash the server. In Opposite to any
other OS suitable for Firebird, Windows 9x/ME does not separate
applications very well.

I would suggest to install an dedicated Linux box as Database server.
There is no need to have plenty of RAM ans several GHz CPU-Power
there, yust an used computer might give reasonable results. Depending
on the Workload of database it might be sufficient to have an
Pentium-2 (or even Pentium 1) CPU with 64 MB RAM - even 32 MB might be
worth trying, the Firebird-Server is not that big. On a Linux-Server
there is no need to start an GUI at all - Windows-Servers do not run
without it.

I did have a look at my server, the with no databases attached the
server allocates about 28 MB virtual memory for fbguard and fbserver,
fbguard can be swapped out without problems.

> 3. What are the minumum requirements per FileServer and per Workstation?

The Database itself certainly does not have heavy requirements on
Workstation side. All you need is an 360KB sized DLL which is
forwarding the Requests to the Server. The real requirements are
derived from your application an the middleware (as ADO) you might use
to talk to the firebird DLL.

> 4. Anything else I should know, especially about a low level/low cost
> installation, such as the one I plan here?

Peer-To-Peer databases do often have limited stability in multi-user
environment. An Server is absolutely preferrable, you should avoid
that nightmare.

Elmar