I have been trying for weeks to establish an ODBC (or OLEDB) connection to an Informix database (V7.20.UD1) on a SCO Unix computer from my Windows XP client. I have edited various files on the SCO box, such as /etc/services, /usr/informix/etc/sqlhosts, /etc/hosts and /etc/hosts.equiv on the SCO Unix box (whose name is scomeld).

I have downloaded the Informix client software to my XP client machine and tried running SetNet32 and the ODBC setup in windows. [The latter tells me "Must close current database before using a new database." but I have no idea what that current database is or how to close it.]

I have spend hours searching the Internet and pestering others to help.

Perhaps this link is impossible?

My latest error message is ...

error opening ODBC connection to ScoMeld
Connection String=
Dsn=192.168.30.1;Host=scomeld;Server=scomeld_se;Pr otocol=sesoctcp;Database=rrate;Uid=tang;Pwd=paris
Error=ERROR [IM002] [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name not found and no default driver specified

If anyone has a check list for establishing this connection and an example of how things should be set up, I would be very grateful to receive it.

Regards

I used that several 1000 years ago ), so let me try it:

1) You must know your INFORMIXSERVER name (it is listed in onconfig file on SCO machine as DBSERVERNAME setting) - for this case let me assume it is my_server
2) You must know port on which is informix (i.e. my_server) listening (it can be found in sqlhosts file on SCO machine - find row with my_server in firs column and then look in 4th column - if there is name instead of number then you should find this name in /etc/protocol file and find corresponding port number) - for this case let me assume it is 1526.

So far you have all data on SCO side.
Next, test connectvity from XP machine: open command prompt and type

telnet scomeld 1526

(followed by enter, of course)
If nothing happens (i.e. screen is cleared and cursor is in upper left corner), then you can connect to your IDS on SCO.
If you get something like:
Could not open connection....
then you have connectivity problem.

Next, let me assume you can connect to IDS.

Then, you can try connection string like this:
cn.ConnectionString = "DRIVER={IBM INFORMIX ODBC DRIVER};UID=" & _
txtLogin & ";PWD=" & _
txtPassword & ";DB=my_database;HOST=scomeld;" & _
"SRVR=my_server;SERV=1526;PRO=onsoctcp;"

HTH

Thank you ibm.ids
That looks most promising. I will try it today.