:: greatly troubled at the moment with multiple access to the
:: same DB it's just
:: around the corner as i want to add a second app that performs offline
:: analysis of the same data.

Exactly.

:: anyway, in answer to your question above, i use the very
:: excellent Indy
:: components :) to attempt a connection to port 3050. if it
:: connects i assume
:: that the server is running.

Where can I find this Indy you mention? :)

But the problem is a bit bigger - This application is in C#. Indy exists in
C# but because of all the meta data now I have to ship one more assembly and
a fairly large one at that (2.5 MB) JUST to see if FB is running?

And then I *still* have the firewall issues....

Is it really true that there are only 2 others on this board that understand
the need Im proposing?