At 11:23 AM 29/09/2005 +0200, you wrote:

>Hi.
>When the Guardian re-starts,the ffg message appears in the Log file :
>*RANDSERV (Client) Tue Sep 27 12:15:56 2005
> C:\Program Files\Firebird\Firebird_1_5\bin\fbserver.exe:
> terminated abnormally (4294967295)

= "crashed". Are you using any UDFs?

>*I have also been concerned about the fact that we use BDE to connect to
>the DB. Our app is written in C++ Builder 5.0 and uses BDE 5.1 to connect.

BDE 5.1 supports no higher than InterBase 5.6.

>All client machines have this same version of BDE installed.I was not
>aware until U mentioned to me that there is NO version of BDE warranted
>for use with ODS 10 databases.Do you think that our problems experienced
>could mainly be due to the BDE?

I don't know what your problems could mainly be due to. We don't have
anything to go on. But - to put it another way - why would it be
surprising to get problems using a driver that was written for an old
predecessor?

>Do you suugest we move away from BDE to maybe something like IBObjects

Yes. Borland was quite categorical at ODS 10 that the BDE was dead for
client/server DBMSs. They replaced it with DBX and (for InterBase)
IBX. But IBX is not a good choice for the long haul, since Borland's
stated policy is not to allow access to its code for Firebird-specific
modifications.

>or what do you suggest?

It's not a trivial choice and it has been much discussed before in this
list. The best is try out the options for yourself - nobody can advise you
what is best for your particular situation. There is a page of
connectivity links in the Contributed Downloads area of the ibphoenix website.

>If we change - would there be drastic code changes required in the
>application?

Theoretically, not drastic. Practically, it depends on the current quality
of your application, with respect to client/server
techniques. Applications that were written to mimic Paradox or dBase will
need quite a lot of work to make them work well...

>I have come across the fbclient.dll and msvcp60.dll that is shipped with
>Firebird. Do i need to copy these 2 .DLL's over to all the client machines
>as well? PS: Client machines are using Win95, Win 98, Win2000 and Win NT.

Yes! they are components of the Fb 1.5 software. Fbclient.dll is a basic
essential. (You can generate a Borland-friendly one with instclient.exe -
read the docs in \doc). Both the clients and the server need msvcp60.dll -
it is the MS C++ runtime. They also need msvcrt.dll, the C runtime.

But Win95, Win98 and WinNT 4 might be tricky wrt the msvcp60.dll and
msvcrt.dll that come in the Fb 1.5 Windows kit. Many other applications
install them, so you won't need them on machines that already have them.

With those old OSs, you should get the proper kits of runtimes for the
particular OS from the MS site if things go pear-shaped with the shipped
ones (or if bad calls to the MS runtimes on the server is the cause of your
crashes).

./hb