Re: Informix Questions

cherylk@prod1.jcdc.doleta.gov (Cheryl Kendricks) wrote: >Good info Nils, Why not use I-NET? Is it because of VB? >Thanks!!!!! No: 1. ODBC drivers that put most of the driver on the server are faster and have the oportunity to introduse many more features like encryption and other security enhancments. 2. I-Net is hard to install and maintain - very hard to my mind. This particularly becomes an issue with many workstations (but even one can be hard enough with I-Net). 3. With a server based ODBC driver you need only one product installed on the PC - an ODBC client - even if you are going to connect to many different databases from different suppliers. 4. Server based ODBC drivers are probably faster than even using I-Net directly (with no ODBC driver). We haven't tested this so it's only a guess. At least there is no reason why it should be any slower. 5. There are other reasons. For us ODBC is the only game in town to connect from any Windows based PC (NT and 95 or 3.x for the unlucky who still have to grable with that). It's standard, fast and provides services to all programs we may want to run. >On Tue, 4 Jun 1996, Nils Myklebust wrote: >} messwein@erols.com (Mark D. Esswein) wrote: >} >} >We are going to be using ODBC from our Visual Basic front end to >} >communicate with the database. Informix says that, in addition to the >} >RDBMS software, we will need the ESQL/C product on the client in order >} >to communicate. Is this true? Don't I really only need an ODBC >} >driver? Which ODBC driver would you recommend? >} >} There is absolutly and definitly no need for ESQL/C. This is either a >} misunderstanding or the usual lack of insight of some Informix people. >} The misunderstanding might be if you have Windows NT or 95 and want to >} use an ODBC driver that uses the Informix I-Net compontent for >} communication. This is only available with ESQL/C. However you >} most definitly do not want to use I-Net if it can at all be avoided. >} Select an ODBC driver that is independent of I-Net if you can. >} >} All you need is a good ODBC driver. There are many available. >} You might check: >} OpenLink at http:\\\\www.openlinksw.com >} SQL Retriewer at http:\\\\www.vision.sco.com >} and many others. >} There may be problems with the NT server component for Informix >} OnLine that these need. I haven't checked lately if they are >} available. Ask the supliers. >} >} Do also read the May 1996 issue of Visual Basic Programmers Journal. >} They have found up to 22 times performance difference with different >} ways of programming database access in Visual Basic. Do it right and >} you'll get good performance.