Re: HELP! PC connect Unix informix database by Openlink ODBC

Nils Myklebust wrote: > Basically Windows 95 runs on anything from a 33 MHz 486 and up as long > as it has at least 16 MB memory. With a price on the order of US$100 > for all new memory it is hardly worth the trouble not to upgrade. The > reason is that Windows 3.1/3.11 is so old and most software is no > longer maintained for it. Windows 95 and NT also comes with buildt in > TCP/IP that's reasonably easy to install and is also relatively > stable. That could hardly be said of most TCP/IP software on Windows > 3.1/3.11. Okay, I agree that the Win95 IP Stack is much better than the old Winsock, however I wouldn't really want to run Win95 on anything other than a Pentium or High-End 486 (like a DX4/100 or so). I've used Win95 on a 486/DX266 and it was barely usable. Something streamlined and well written like Linux or FreeBSD is usable, but Win95 is just too heavy. > Better yet, if you can afford it is to run Windows NT. One key > difference is that you can continue working with other tasks if some > operations in one program takes a long time. My understanding is that Windows NT is what Win95 should be--stable (although it requires a bigger footprint than Win95). > Also if you want to run MS Access which is a good tool for ad hoc > querying and reasonable for reportwriting you need to upgrade your PC > enough that Windows 95 can be installed on it anyway. This is true for > most other reporting and similar tools as well. To run even Windows > 3.1/3.11 with only less than 16 MB has a tendency to result in very > bad performance. Access is a nice tool for quick and dirty reporting, possibly even not-so-dirty reporting, although I don't see a *requirement* to upgrade to Office 95/97 for that capability. I've used both the 16-bit and 32-bit versions and they are both just as capabile a tool for this purpose. > What kind of PC network you use (Lan Manager or other) doesn't matter > for ODBC connectivity. That only uses the raw TCP/IP protocol. The OpenLink drivers also support IPX (if you really need to go that route). Although since you're connecting to a Unix box, you'll probably be using TCP/IP. > If you don't upgrade your OS you will loose a lot of time and effort > trying to make Windows 3.1/3.11 work. It's not worth using the > currently most pressious resource - human brainpower - on such an > undertaking. That will cost you more than the upgrade. In my somewhat jaded opinion, migrating to Win95 won't eliminate a lot of time and effort trying to get things to work, you'll just have different tasks to undertake. I will admit that configuring the IP stack is much easier under Win95, but once you have Winsock or whatever stack you're using on Win3.x configured, the differences in making the ODBC connection happy are negligable. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Daniel James - Database Administrator djames@statsci.com DAPD Div of MathSoft (formerly StatSci) (206) 283-8802 x284