I just reinstalled Firebird to see if that would help address an earlier
problem .. now I cannot even start the employee example database.

In ISQL:

SQL> connect "C:\Program Files\Firebird\Firebird_1_5\examples\employee.fdb"
CON> user 'SYSDBA' password 'MASTERKEY';
Statement failed, SQLCODE = -902

Your user name and password are not defined. Ask your database administrator
to set up a Firebird login.

How could sysdba not be defined???

Aaron