At 03:35 PM 28/07/2004 +0100, you wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>I have two Windows XP machines networked and I am trying to run a Firebird
>Delphi application over.
>
>- One is Windows XP Pro and this has the database on it and Firebird 1.5
>server installed.
>- The other is Windows XP Home and this has Firebird 1.5 client installed.
>
>I have shared the database folder on the XP Pro machine, and the database
>path is stored in a .ini file in the same folder as the application on the
>XP Home machine.
>
>However, when I try to run the application on the XP Home machine, I get an
>error pop up on the XP Pro machine:
>Missing configuration file: C:\Program
>Files\Firebird\Firebird_1_5\aliases.conf
>
>The application hangs on the XP Home machine until I close the error message
>on the XP Pro machine. Is it possible to get it to run in this setup, and
>what format should the path to the database take?
>
>FBDATA=COMPUTERNAME:SHAREDFOLDERNAME\Database.gdb ???
>
>Do I need to map a drive letter to the shared folder?

You can't connect to shared folders or mapped drives *at all* - only to an
absolute path. (That one needs to be tattooed on your forehead, along with
"Null is a state, not a value" and "Don't use .gdb extensions on XP").

As for aliases, use aliases.conf for them. That's where the Firebird
server resolves aliases in client requests. The format is
FBDATA = drive:\path\to\the\database.fdb

Your application's connection string then is:
(for TCP)
COMPUTERNAME:FBDATA
(for Named Pipes)
\\COMPUTERNAME\FBDATA

/heLen