What's a connection string?

Connection string is a string containing server name (hostname or IP address), TCP/IP port and a path to database or database alias. For example, if you are connecting to database /db/mydb.fdb on a Linux Firebird server at IP address 192.168.0.11, you can use a connection string like this:

192.168.0.11:/db/mydb.fdb

You can also write the server hostname instead of IP address:

MYSERVER:/db/mydb.fdb

If the server is Windows, use drive letters as well:

192.168.0.11:C:\db\mydb.fdb
MYSERVER:C:\db\mydb.fdb

You can also use aliases instead of database path:

192.168.0.11:mydb
MYSERVER:mydb

If the server uses some TCP/IP port other than the default 3050, you need to add that as well. For example, if the port is 3051:

192.168.0.11/3051:C:\db\mydb.fdb
192.168.0.11/3051:mydb
MYSERVER/3051:/db/mydb.fdb
MYSERVER/3051:mydb

Beside the port name, you can also use the service name, which is gds_db by default:

192.168.0.11/gds_db:C:\db\mydb.fdb
192.168.0.11/gds_db:mydb
MYSERVER/gds_db:/db/mydb.fdb
MYSERVER/gds_db:mydb

Service name is basically an alias for port, and is stored in services file on your system. See FAQ #227 for more details.

Beside TCP/IP you can also connect via Named Pipes (a.k.a. NetBEUI or WNET or XNET) protocol. In that case, the connection string looks like this:

\\MYSERVER\C:\db\mydb.fdb
\\MYSERVER@gds_db\C:\db\mydb.fdb

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