🚀 go-pugleaf

> Bowen kindly pointed us to you from the non-technical newsgroup; hope
> you don't mind if I piggyback on this thread ....

No, I don't mind at all!

> I'm guessing that if you've got "mission critical apps" already running,
> then they must have been built with VdB 5.5a

Correct. 5.5A and 5.6.

> My specific questions (I guess) are :
> ? How do I configure the BDE to use Netsoft's ODBC ? or CA/400's ?

Once you've got the ODBC driver successfully installed, launch the BDE Config
utility and click on the "New ODBC Driver" button.  Fill the the blank
appropriately (usually there's only one valid choice, so it's easy <G>).

Next you have to setup a BDE alias to point to the driver and setup defualt
libraries, etc.  Click on the "Aliases" tab, click the "New Alias" button,
give it a name and select the ODBC driver you just setup for the Alias Type. 
Save it, and you're done!  In dBASE you can OPEN DATABASE <alias> and you're
on your way.

>   The BDE seems to want me to put in an ODBC_ prefix for the driver (if
> I remember aright)
>   Or am I looking in the wrong place altogether ?

Nope, that's exactly right.  I call mine ODBC_AS400 <g>.

> ? What is the name of the Netsoft ODBC driver (I couldn't find it in the
> Help)

It's however you named it in the ODBC administrator. Remember, that step must
have been done before you get into the BDE config!

> ? Is there anything we need to do on the AS/400 to configure it ?

Nope, it's all handled by the software router.  Oh, wait, you must be sure
that the PC can actually connect to the AS/400, of course, which usually means
that AUTOCONFIG is turned on and the Client Access optiosn are set to accept
new PC connections over the network.   But of course you need that just to get
terminal emulation up in most cases, so it's probably already done. 

> I'm sorry if I'm repeating anything obvious; I haven't even "lurked"
> this newsgroup until now ..

No trouble at all, and don't worry about repeating.  Someone else might learn
from it!

kgc