Wow, I sure set a fire with that question. Thanks for the help,
everyone. As it turned out, this worked for me:

gsec -database localhost:C:\Progra~1\Firebird\Firebird_1_5\security.fdb
-user sysdba -password masterkey

I found this was in Helen's book all along on page 701 under the heading
"Running gsec as a remote client" - apologies for not reading the help
before going to the list <g>

Walter

At 05:47 PM 11/2/2005, you wrote:

>--- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, Walter Ogston <ogstoncw@c...>
>wrote:
> >
> > Dear friends,
> >
> > I am trying to install Firebird on a server that I access by Windows
>remote
> > desktop.
>
> > Running Windows Server 2003
> > Enterprise edition.
> >
> > First I installed an Apache2 server, which works OK so I assume
>TCP/IP is
> > up an running on the server.
>
>running ipconfig will tell you pretty quickly, but if you are remote
>desktop'd in, then TCP is running, trust me ;)
>
> >
> > Then I downloaded and ran Firebird-1.5.3.4854-0_RC2-Win32.exe and the
> > resulting directory structure looks OK.
> >
>
>First note,
>
>Do you release that 1.5.3 is a release candidate, not a stable
>production version? In other words, it should be used for testing, and
>could contain all sorts of bugs that may potentially corrupt a database.
>
>1.5.2 is the latest stable version. By all means review the 1.5.3
>release notes to see any 1.5.2 issues you may encounter.
>
>You can download it from here:
><http://www.firebirdsql.org/index.php?op=files>http://www.firebirdsql.org/index.php?op=files
>
> > Next thing I wanted to do was change the sysdba password using gsec.
>In
> > the Command Prompt I did:
> >
> > C:\Program Files\Firebird\Firebird_1_5>bin\gsec -user sysdba -password
> > masterkey
> >
> > and got:
> >
> > unavailable database
> > unable to open database
>
>This is the exact error message I received a week or two ago. I
>believe there is a bug in Firebird 1.5 running on Windows 2003 Server
>which prevents local connections from being made.
>
>I am unable to use the embedded version of our application on Windows
>2003, unavailable database.
>
>I wrote a quick upgrade tool that connected to a database (via
>installed SuperServer 1.5.0, yes I will get to upgrading that soon)
>through the path name and I received unavailable database.
>
>I can even duplicate it with iSQL
>
>----
>
>C:\Program Files\Firebird\Firebird_1_5\bin>isql
>localhost:C:\Data\MyDB\MyDB.fdb -user sysdba -password masterke
>Database: localhost:C:\Data\MyDB\MyDB.fdb, User: sysdba
>SQL> select count(*) from RDB$DATABASE;
>
> COUNT
>============
>
> 1
>
>Looks good so far, try again using local connection.
>
>C:\Program Files\Firebird\Firebird_1_5\bin>isql C:\Data\MyDB\MyDB.fdb
>-user sysdba -password masterke
>Statement failed, SQLCODE = -904
>
>unavailable database
>Use CONNECT or CREATE DATABASE to specify a database
>
>-----
>
>If someone can confirm this behaviour on their system, then I will log
>it in the incident tracker, I do not believe it is specific to our
>implementation because I have seen it on a customers server as well.
>
> > So my question is, what have I missed that I am unable to run gsec?
> >
>
>My guess, gsec is trying to access the security database via a local
>connection. On a side note, I hope this issue is resolved before FB 2,
>because from memory you can not connect to the security database
>directly then.
>
>Adam
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
>Visit <http://firebird.sourceforge.net>http://firebird.sourceforge.net and
>click the Resources item
>on the main (top) menu. Try Knowledgebase and FAQ links !
>
>Also search the knowledgebases at
><http://www.ibphoenix.com>http://www.ibphoenix.com
>
>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
>
>
>
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/*
C. Walter Ogston
ogstoncw@...
*/