Does anyone know of a way to detect when the Firebird 1.5 embedded
server is being used?

The app I'm working on (for managing a fund raising auction) will
initially be used at several independent / temporary sites as a
stand-alone / embedded program (for pre-auction data entry), but the
night of the auction will be running on a network hitting a real
server. During the time it's being used at independent sites for data
entry, I'd like to have a "backup and email home" menu option, which
would disconnect from the database, zip the GDB file, and email it to
a central location (me). Obviously that's a bad idea when in
multi-user mode, though!

I suppose I could distribute GBAK and run it from a shell command, but
that seems to be overkill for an embedded database application.

An unrelated comment - I've been noticing Informant Magazine
contributor Bill Todd regularly praising Advantage Database server
these days. I used Advantage for a while - to address this exact
issue (stand alone and client-server operation). It got the job done,
mostly, and I have a lot of respect for that company, which treats
developers well. However, I CANNOT IMAGINE anyone choosing Advantage
over Firebird plus IBO! Ordering via indices, no UPDATE in the SQL,
locking issues... no thanks! Thank you, Jason!

Tim