At 07:43 PM 30/06/2008, you wrote:

>Hello Helen,
>
>> If you have the BDE configured for 'local' it will not access a database across a LAN.
>I never explicitely came across such a setting, and - unfortunately - I had/have
>to deal with that dinosaur of an engine a lot.
>BDE is using aliases to connect to different databases.
>You specify the database within each alias. BDE will access whichever
>database you are specifying there, local or remote.

Because the OP specifically said 'local' I assumed he meant that he had his alias configured with a "serverless" connection string. I still think he should check that this is not the case: it might seem to go like a rocket if he is running the app on the server machine. :-(

>> I have no idea how well the very last-ever InterBase
>> driver (v.5.2) works with Firebird 2.0.
>I would not use that INTRBASE driver myself, because it performs
>horribly with Dialect 3.

There are some problems with the v.5.1 Interbase driver, even with a Dialect 1 database.

> You have what you could call a choice as
> long as you stick with Dialect 1, which of course can not be
> recommended either.

Actually, I don't agree that sticking with Dialect 1 is a bad idea in this case. Just the fact that they have such an old application using such a nightmarish interface strongly suggests that this is software that has not been touched for years. If they don't have plans to upgrade the application, I would recommend letting sleeping dogs lie - stick with Dialect 1 and take the database back to Firebird 1.5.5

>For Dialect 3 the only remaining solution is to go via ODBC.
>Vladimir Tsvigun did a lot of extra work to make the IBPhoenix driver
>working very fine together with the old BDE back in 2004.

Even so, you're dealing with an old interface and database requirements that clearly don't need any of the new language features - otherwise they would have upgraded the dialect. So what is working for you, fully familiar with your database and its history, and keeping up with the progress of Firebird for many years, would take a lot of gung-ho for someone who has to step into it from the cold...

./heLen