How to access Firebird 1.5 from Windows 2016

[Enrico Giudici]

Goodmorning everyone,

surely reading my post everyone will have a big and fat laugh but this is what I have in management and, since the application has been working very well for a very long time for the moment it is okay.

Also I apologize to all of you for my macaronic English, which is why I'm using google translate.

I state that I still use Firebird 1.5 and Delphi 7 with FibPlus components.

So let's get to the point, I have the following configuration:

APP1: Server DB
OS: Windows server 2012

Software: Server where the application and the INI configuration file for accessing the DB are installed
OS: Windows server 2016

Client: They have installed only the Firebird client and the link to the application on the Software server

When the program accesses the database, it requires access as admin to the local machine as well as direct sharing such as C $ or E $
Then they log in remotely as user-admin on 2012 to \\ APP1 \ C $ \ db destination

This feature was removed after 2012 due to security problems so to enable it you have to modify and play with all the registry keys to open the security "flaw"

The ideal solution would be for firebird to access the database without needing to use the "$" example C $, and to be local machine administration,
but with the simple sharing of the db in a simple read / write \\ software \ destinazionedb this would be more convenient for future movement on servers 2019, 2021 etc.

Thank you all for any support you can give me.

Yours sincerely.

Giudici Enrico.

[Dimitry Sibiryakov]

14.04.2021 12:23, Enrico Giudici wrote:
> The ideal solution would be for firebird to access the database without needing to use the
> "$" example C $, and to be local machine administration,
> but with the simple sharing of the db in a simple read / write \\ software \
> destinazionedb this would be more convenient for future movement on servers 2019, 2021 etc.

Read Firebird Quick Start Guide about connecting to Firebird using TCP/IP.

--
WBR, SD.

[Mark Rotteveel]

On 2021-04-14 12:23, Enrico Giudici wrote:
> surely reading my post everyone will have a big and fat laugh but this
> is what I have in management and, since the application has been
> working very well for a very long time for the moment it is okay.
>
> Also I apologize to all of you for my macaronic English, which is why
> I'm using google translate.
>
> I state that I still use Firebird 1.5 and Delphi 7 with FibPlus
> components.
>
> So let's get to the point, I have the following configuration:
>
> APP1: Server DB
> OS: Windows server 2012
>
> Software: Server where the application and the INI configuration file
> for accessing the DB are installed
> OS: Windows server 2016
>
> Client: They have installed only the Firebird client and the link to
> the application on the Software server
>
> When the program accesses the database, it requires access as admin to
> the local machine as well as direct sharing such as C $ or E $
> Then they log in remotely as user-admin on 2012 to \\ APP1 \ C $ \ db
> destination

Firebird itself doesn't require such access (nor 1.5 as I can recall),
so this sounds to me like an application specific problem, or you're
incorrectly trying to access a Firebird database through a network share
instead of through a Firebird server on the system hosting the database
file. Or your application has some non-standard form of access.

> This feature was removed after 2012 due to security problems so to
> enable it you have to modify and play with all the registry keys to
> open the security "flaw"
>
> The ideal solution would be for firebird to access the database
> without needing to use the "$" example C $, and to be local machine
> administration,
> but with the simple sharing of the db in a simple read / write \\
> software \ destinazionedb this would be more convenient for future
> movement on servers 2019, 2021 etc.

If this is really about access to the database, then you should stop
accessing the database through a share. Connect to it through a Firebird
server. I think you're lucky you haven't corrupted your database so far.

I'm not sure what answer or help you expect from us, but as Dimitry
said, change how your application access the database, specify hostname
+ database file (eg servername:C:\path-to-your-database.fdb).

Mark

[Elmar Haneke]

> When the program accesses the database, it requires access as admin to
> the local machine as well as direct sharing such as C $ or E $
> Then they log in remotely as user-admin on 2012 to \\ APP1 \ C $ \ db
> destination

For an reliable solution you should install firebird server on your
win2012 server machine. Afterwards you can access the database via TCP
socket from client machine.

Using an FDB file on an network share has never been an good idea - even
if it did work in the past.

The special shares like "c$" have been disabled on windows this is
nothing done in FirebirdSQL.

On changing your client app you might consider updating to current
firebird software to have an currently supported tool. But, i would
expect old 1.5 installs to run on current Windows to.


Elmar

[Enrico Giudici]

Firebird itself doesn't require such access (nor 1.5 as I can recall),
so this sounds to me like an application specific problem, or you're
incorrectly trying to access a Firebird database through a network share
instead of through a Firebird server on the system hosting the database
file. Or your application has some non-standard form of access.

At a systemic level I am a seal, with all due respect for seals. For the systems part I rely on a very prepared consultant. To access the db on the server I use the following line which is inside an .INI file

PathDB = \\ app1 \ DBFolder \ DBName.gdb

 

> This feature was removed after 2012 due to security problems so to
> enable it you have to modify and play with all the registry keys to
> open the security "flaw"
>
> The ideal solution would be for firebird to access the database
> without needing to use the "$" example C $, and to be local machine
> administration,
> but with the simple sharing of the db in a simple read / write \\
> software \ destinazionedb this would be more convenient for future
> movement on servers 2019, 2021 etc.

If this is really about access to the database, then you should stop
accessing the database through a share. Connect to it through a Firebird
server. I think you're lucky you haven't corrupted your database so far.

I'm not sure what answer or help you expect from us, but as Dimitry
said, change how your application access the database, specify hostname
+ database file (eg servername:C:\path-to-your-database.fdb).

Fortunately, in all these years, touching iron the db has never been corrupted.

[Dimitry Sibiryakov]

15.04.2021 22:14, Enrico Giudici wrote:
> To access the db on the server I use the following line which is inside an .INI file
> PathDB = \\ app1 \ DBFolder \ DBName.gdb

This is an abbreviated WNET connection string.
Full form of it is \\server\D:\path\database.
File share is not used and not needed.
If your consultant recommended this connection string, his preparation is questionable.

--
WBR, SD.