Can one domain (website) use the database from another website's database? Must the database be located on the same server as the website to query the data? Is that what a DSN-less connection is?

Best I can determine, the only way to use data from a database not located under the same domain name (website) is to use frames? The primary problem I have with using frames in this application is that the search engines (as I understand it) do NOT index the data in the frame.

Any suggestions or comments pertaining to these two scenarios? How can I use a database which is located on a server with a differing IP address??

You could set up a DSN-less connection to another database - but you would need permissions to access the database and I'm not sure you'd find many ISP's willing to allow you that kind of access.

Why do you want to access the other DB? Wouldnt it be easier to simply mirror the data over to your own DB and work from there. It would be more secure and (depending where the other DB was) much quicker

Sharing knowledge saves valuable time!

Simon

[DWMX 2004]|[SQL]|[ASP/VBScript]|[XP-Pro]

The idea is to have one database located on an in-house server and several websites (located on managed servers else ware) being able to access the data in the database. To copy the database and FTP it to each site is not convenient. The idea is that all updates to the database are instantly viewable on each of the sites. Only one database needs to be updated.

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You could set up a DSN-less connection to another database - but you would need permissions to access the database and I'm not sure you'd find many ISP's willing to allow you that kind of access.

Why do you want to access the other DB? Wouldnt it be easier to simply mirror the data over to your own DB and work from there. It would be more secure and (depending where the other DB was) much quicker

Sharing knowledge saves valuable time!

Simon

[DWMX 2004]|[SQL]|[ASP/VBScript]|[XP-Pro]

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In my opinion that's quite a risky idea. It looks appealing from the standpoint of how much work you'll have to do, but in terms of the security risks posed I'd try to find another solution. Could you have your DB hosted at the same place as your sites so all your domains can be linked (internally) to the single DB, i.e. all sitting behind the hosts security?

Or as an alternative option, DTS update your online DB's from your local one (or set up Pub/Sub?). The advantage to this is that you'd maintain a degree of separation between your local DB and any prying eyes - minimising the risk of dangerous data being introduced into your local DB.

A DSN-less connection specifies the location of the database (this can be an absolute URI), and any connection details that are required (username, password etc). They are usually faster than DSN connections. So yes, you would need to use a DSN-less connection to connect to your locally held DB.
You would need to open up ports on your firewall to allow the flow of data in and out.
The performance of your sites will therefore be dependant on the speed of the data flow over the internet to and from your DB. So you will need to focus on minimising the requests between the database and the webpages and generally optimising all interactions.

You could call data from a number of databases, if you wanted to, into pages without needing to use frames. My understanding is also that search engines have trouble dealing with frames so I stay clear of them if I can.

Sharing knowledge saves valuable time!

Simon

[DWMX 2004]|[SQL]|[ASP/VBScript]|[XP-Pro]

hi There,

I would like to copy another websites database. Is there any easy way of doing this, or would i have to type each part of there database out to form my own db. considering there database is massive i would like a way of just exporting and importing the data into mine