Hello to all,

This is my first post here and I hope somebody will be able to assist me, I
know it is a long message but I am trying to provide all information that
may be needed. I am a developer and would love to user firebird with my
applications but for several days now, I have been trying to connect to a
database server on my home network without any success. I develop
applications using Visual Basic 6.0. I posted this here since I am trying
to use Visual Basic, but so far I haven't even been able to connect to the
DB at all. If I should take this to firebird-support, please advise.

This is how my computers are setup:
===================
I have installed superserver 2.1.3 on a windows XP computer. This is the
server I am trying to connect to over the network. On this computer I have
also installed Visual Basic 6.0, IBExpert and the ODBC to connect to the
database. The computer has an IP 192.168.1.2. I can connect perfectly fine
to the database with IBExpert and with Visual Basic on this computer.
Everything works well. The problem arises when I try to connect another
computer to the database.

2nd computer: Has windows XP installed, IBExpert, IP is 192.168.1.8 (can
ping the server), Visual Basic and the ODBC for firebird. Basically what I
want to do is to use this computer to access the database instead of having
to program on the same machine where the server is installed. Initially I
had installed the superserver on this machine also and I thought I could
connect to the database server with this setup. I could not. Reading more
on network connections to firebird I figured I only needed the client files
installed on this computer. So I uninstalled the server and I installed the
client files only with admin tools since I would like to run some admin
tasks on the database from this computer.
====================

I also read I needed to modify the host files on both computers. I did. the
host file for the server looks like this
127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.1.2 fb_server

and the hosts file on the other computer looks like this.
192.168.1.2 fb_server
127.0.0.1 localhost

The file path on the database server is C:\Documents and
Settings\Administrador\Mis
documentos\Desarrollo\ClinicaFacil\CLINICAFACIL.FDB

When I try connecting to the database via the odbc it gives me the following
msg:
============================================
Open database 'fb_server:/C:\Documents and Settings\Administrador\Mis
documentos\Desarrollo\ClinicaFacil\CLINICAFACIL.FDB' failed.
============================================

When I try to register the database via IBExpert I get the following msg.
============================================
Connecting... Failed!
------------------------------------
Unsuccessful execution caused by a system error that precludes
successful execution of subsequent statements.
Unable to complete network request to host "fb_server".
Failed to locate host machine.
The specified name was not found in the hosts file or Domain Name Services.

Attempting to connect to services manager... Failed!
------------------------------------

Unsuccessful execution caused by a system error that precludes
successful execution of subsequent statements.
Unable to complete network request to host "fb_server".
Failed to locate host machine.
The specified name was not found in the hosts file or Domain Name Services.

Disconnecting from database... Passed!
===================================================

In both cases I use the client fbclient.dll in the bin directory of the
firebird install directory.

I have also tried with the IP address instead of using the hostname, the
database alias with no success. After this I kept on reading but just got
confused with ports and how firebird listens to ports, etc, etc.

I really do not think it should be that difficult, but I must be missing
something. Could anyone with more experience help me please?

Best regards,

Oscar


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