>I'm just starting to embark into the world of dcom and vfp and have some basic questions.
>
>I downloaded the dfox example from an article I saw mentioned here on UT and on VFUG. I've tried to register and run it on 2 different computers, one win98, and one NT workstation. Both have dcom installed. I've verified on both computers that they enabledcom and enableremoteconnect keys are set to "y" in the registry. If I search for the class code from the dfox.vbr file in the registry on either computer, I can find it there.
>
>If I try to execute the server on the win98 machine from the NT workstation, I get the following error:
>
>OLE error code 0x80080005: Server execution failed.
>
>If I try to execute the server on the NT workstation from the win98 box I get this error:
>
>OLE error code 0x80070005: Access is denied.
>
>The first error I don't understand, the second, I can see where it would be a permissions issue. I would reset the security context for the server, but it doesn't show up in dcomcnfg. Should any server you register this way show up in dcomcnfg, or is there some other magic I'm missing here.
>


First error you are getting is because DCOM server does not *really* work under Windows 98. At least I (and I know some others) was not very lucky trying this. Under Windows 98 you need to start your server application manually and have it waiting for the clients. You can check

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q165/1/01.asp

but I decided not to waiste time for trying to get this working.

On NT or Windows 2000 DCOM works fine, you are just having the security setup problems. Your DCOM users must have accounts and proper access rights on the server PC. Of course you can allow access to Everyone, but one day somebody will be smart enought to issue

oVFP.DOCMD("ERASE *.*")

for your System32 directory. :)
The security settings should be set in DCOMCNFG at the system level and on the DCOM component level.
Also you should make sure that your firewalls on the server set up that they allow access to your DCOM. For example, the running ZoneAlarm utility can prevent access to your DCOM.

There is an excellent article by Rick Strahl "Accessing COM objects Over TCP/IP in November issue of FoxPro Advisor where he talks a lot about security settings.