Mark,

I assume that you're talking about Remote automation.

Using DCOM is a much more rubust solution than creating a NT-service.
With a Service you have to start the Automation Manager (if you're programing in VFP or VB). Despite of more than 2 day's of attempt i couldn't get it working properly.

By my knowlegde DCOM is only easy to implement when using a Window NT 4.0 Server and Windows NT 4.0 Workstation and some (surely not all) Windows 95 versions.
(for more information see Q158582 at microsoft support page)

I've made a security module which stores permissions of users and group by compiling a projects with only a VCX and a dummy-startprogram as a OLE server. Then you can register it on both the server anfd the client (See Developers guide) and configure it with the DCOMCNFG utility.

an advantage of using dcom is that you don't have to install or start a service just use the create object command:

x=CREATEOBJECT()

You can give the created object other administrative rights than the user logged on (client machine). In my case through my class i can acces databases which i cannot access directly because i have no permission to the appropriate directory.

Personnaly i gave my class administrator rights (i work in a small network) so i can do some powerfull things such as finding out who's logged on the network,
who's using particular files, add and delete users and groups etc.

I this is usefull information,


Walter Meester,
Tax Software