I'm a little bit confused by the various names and options for
connecting to Firebird on Windows, or maybe just by FAQ 260, or
maybe both.

There are three ways to connect on Windows, two of which are
Windows only:

(1) TCP/IP - straightforward, cross-platform, local loopback
and remote

(2) Named Pipes, alias WNet (or NetBEUI, which is the WNet transport
layer); changed in FB 2.0 (release notes FB 2.0, ch.2)

(3) Windows local, alias IPC, FB implementation name IPServer;
replaced in 2.0 by another FB implementation called XNET
(rel. notes FB 2.0, ch.2)

So it seems clear - three different ways to connect. Yet FAQ 260
("What's a connection string?") [1] states:

Beside TCP/IP you can also connect via Named Pipes
(a.k.a. NetBEUI or WNET or XNET) protocol.

That sounds as if WNET and XNET were the same thing. Is that so?

[1] http://www.firebirdfaq.org/faq260/
--
Michael Ludwig