>Sorry,
>When I wrote "named offer" I realize now I was referring to named shares;
>E.g., when a Windows user shares a folder with a given share name.
>
>What I'm reading from your post is that named shares don't work.
>What's weirding us out is when we format the string as
>"\\Server\\ShareName\<RestOfPath (if any)\<FileName>.FDB",
>sometimes it works, and sometimes in doesn't. I'm just trying to find out why...
>
>If it's necessary to prevent the user from selecting a named share (even though
>the dialog can find it, along with the .FDB file), we can do that. We were just
>hoping to provide the user with more flexibility.

Firebird is actually very different. The database doesn't have to reside in a location the client has access to (and I think it is considered safer if the client doesn't have access) - it is only Firebird itself running on the server that must have access to the database.

What I rather would recommend, is to write a small description telling the database owner how to set up a Firebird alias on the server (e.g. look at the 'quick start guide', 'installing firebird', 'security' and the paragraph 'Use database aliases' - all that is required is to add a line to the aliases.conf file), then your users may connect simply by using Server:MyAlias without knowing anything about paths.

HTH,
Set