> Confusion here - first, there is no "Phoenix
> version"; and, secondly, Firebird has no
> licensing code whatsoever.

My mistake. I had thought that IB Phoenix was going to produce a
version capable of being licenced - to give developers the ability to
control access.

> The Borland InterBase network access licence
> simply allows a larger number of remote clients
> to log in to the server.

So what you are saying is that the old IB5 (and previous) modular
licencing no longer exists in the IB6 source code?

> > Of course if you built your own copy of
> > Firebird from the source you could probably
> > take care of this more directly.
>
> It's hard to see what this would solve...

**IF** the hooks used by the old licencing system still exist in the
IB source code, I should have thought it would be relatively easy to
compile a version that was local only, that would refuse network
access.

> For Firebird, even a remote client licence is
> unnecessary. If the server is running on your
> machine and other people who have SYSDBA privileges
> can access it, you can't keep them out.

You can with a firewall product like ZoneAlarm. I dont want to get
too far off-topic, but in many situations it is highly appropriate to
use a third party product to solve these types of situations. If
security is really a concern then indirect attacks also need to be
considered. Third party products can provide protection against
indirect forms of intrusion.

This is not to say that Firebird should not get the ability to run
local only. I think that this would be a good feature, but it is one
that should not be exclusively relied on for high security situations.


Geoff Worboys
Telesis Computing