ODBC across firewall

[Paul_Knight_Lockheed_Mart]

We have an Access Database on a server and our test machines use an ODBC DSN to connect to it.  Works great, but now our company is forcing us to move test machines behind a firewall.  However the server with the database is not moving behind the firewall.

Does anyone know what port on the firewall must be open for ODBC connections to work?  Is there a better way than ODBC to make the connection to the database?

Thanks

[jspeedz]

I am not sure what port would need to be opened for ODBC connections to work.  I would suggest looking into the CVI SQL Toolkit as a better way to make a connection to the database:

LabWindows™/CVI SQL Toolkit

http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/11128

[Paul_Knight_Lockheed_Mart]

I am using the LabWindows/CVI SQL Toolkit.  The connection function uses a "DSN=DatabaseName" to make the connection to the database.  This uses the ODBC Access driver.

Paul

[OVR_CZ]

Hi,

ODBC is "local" api/protocol between your application(or sql tollkit) and specific ODBC driver.

ODBC driver has its own communication protocol to his supported database, and every database( and its ODBC driver)  has its own requirements.

So, you need to check/setup your database to use (one or more) specific static ports. Also you may need to set this ports in ODBC-DNS settings too.I hope this help

[rolfk]

In addition to the fact that ODBC is really a local API that only can talk to local ODBC drivers for your specific database, MS Access really is a file based database without true network connectivity. Read this about using Access in a WAN setup. It is generally a very bad idea since Access (or more specifically the Jet database engine behind it) was never designed to be used in a networked manner.

But even if you insist on using Access, you will have to find out what ports the Access ODBC driver uses to access the remote database. They might be not fixed in which case it can get a real hell to get your firewall settings properly configured.