At 07:34 PM 7/06/2008, you wrote:

>Thanks Helen.
>
>
>
>The client had an older version of firebird installed on his PC,
>concurrently with 2.0.3.12981
>
>Even thoug hthe correct version of firebird server was running, he was
>getting the error.

Well, the wrong version of fb server was running as well, and *it* had the service port - demonstrated by the fact that it answered the client request. But I'd go further than this and suggest the strong possibility that the "correct" version was not running. You cant' tell simply from looking at the service name, since it is the same from version to version - you'd need to inspect the property sheet of the service and look at the location of the executable.

>When carefully deleting all, and reinstalling, the problem disappeared.

..as expected.

>How can I pick this up in the future, and why would it use the older
>version, when the server running is the correct one?

Well, really, there's no way to pick it up automatically. The installer is meant to detect an existing installation and whether it is running - except that it has never worked on Windows. That means the installer will just keep going and do its stuff without throwing any exceptions...except that it won't start the newly installed server if the existing one is running.

It was supposed to have been fixed in the tight time window between v.2.1 RC 2 and the v.2.1 release. I have an idea that it still doesn't work, even there. But it certainly doesn't work in v.2.0.3.

If you're not able to supervise your installations I don't see you have any option but to provide a set of written instructions for your users on preparing to install. Someone might have a better idea..

./heLen