--- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, "Greg At ACD" <GregAtACD@...>
wrote:

>
> --- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, Richard Wesley
> <hawkfish@> wrote:
> >
> >
> > On Mar 21, 2006, at 15:26, Helen Borrie wrote:
> >
> > > It doesn't (and never has) recognised UNC paths. However, the
> Named
> > > Pipes protocol uses an UNC-style format, which works ONLY if
> > >
> > > a) server is the actual node name of the server (the one that
> appears
> > > in My Computer on that machine);
> > > and
> > > b) the "\path\to\database" is an absolute path on that machine
> > > and
> > > c) the host machine is running a service-capable Windows.
> > >
> > > Also, in all current releases of Firebird 1.5, database aliasing
> is
> > > broken for Named Pipes (fixed in Fb 2).
> > >
> > > Here's a Named Pipes connection string to a database that's in
> > > d:\data on a server named billsbuddy:
> > >
> > > \\billsbuddy\d:\data\mydatabase.fdb
> >
> > Thanks Helen. Sadly, I am using an embedded server, so I don't
> think
> > this is an option for me.
>
> Would this work if you mapped the drive to a drive letter (e.g. map
> \\billsbuddy\data\ to your X: drive, then access via X:\myDB.fdb?
>
> I would agree that it's probably not a good thing to do, but I'm
> wondering if Firebird realizes that the drive letter is a mapped
> network drive and balks at it (probably not a bad idea).
>
> Greg
>

IIRC, a Firebird Server expects the fdb file to be on a local drive,
not a map or a share. There is no reliable way of locking the file
across a network share, so I imagine there are some pretty reliable
ways of destroying your database if you proceed down that path. There
are also some serious performance implications.

If you need to access the database from a remote machine, either write
your own n-tier app or use Superserver (which is the same as embedded
but allows TCP connections) or Classic (which is better able to use
SMP but usually requires more resources). There is no code changes to
switch between server types, just a small change to the connection
string. The client side only needs a few dlls (fbclient.dll and
possibly msvcp60.dll and msvcrt.dll)

You can probably hit a nail into a wall with a spanner, but it doesn't
make it a good idea to do so. Use the right tool for the right job and
you will have a lot less problems.

Adam