>Has anyone any experience in communicating via IP (send and receive etc) with a 'foreign' data base. We are trying to receive and send data to a Unix based, object oriented, proprietary database using an ethernet connection.
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>We know from the proprietary database authors that the 'preferred' method of communication is via IP packets and we have, or can get, all of the required addresses etc but we have no experience in this method of access.
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>Does anyone know of an OCX, DLL etc that can assist in this area when using VFP.
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>Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Well, for a start, you need to find out what protocol(s) the foreign database supports. You would then need a tool that can establish a communications session with that database server, using a supported protocol, and can transport requests and data back and forth.

Rick Strahl at West Wind has created wwIPStuff, which is a Fox-oriented add on that supports some protocols. I understand he has made this freely available at his Web site.