> Fortunately, there are a couple of ways to work around this problem.
>
> If you are creating a program -- the only solution I am aware if is:
> incorporate a small function which polls the Firebird IP port for a
> response, into the application start. Once the polling function gets a
> response, the rest of the application start can continue.

Thanks Sean,

for lack of a better solution I now keep trying to connect for a number of
times with a one second delay in between.
I would like to do what you suggested though. Can you give me some pointers
on how I "poll a port" using Delphi?

Florian