[thelist] database connection across different IP's

[Anthony Baratta]

At 02:58 PM 2/18/2003, Paul Bennett wrote:
>We have a client who wants to connect an Access db to their website to
>post job listings. They have a permanent internet connection with a
>fixed IP address, but no webserver at their premises (so there goes the
>idea of  them hosting their site from their office using their permanent
>connection).
>Their database server is (obviously) behind a firewall.

Paul...

Do they have a Database Server or just an Access Database, or both?? This
makes a big difference.

>My question is this: is it possible to use php to access a database
>server behind a firewall using not a domain as a "pointer" (is that the
>right word?) reference but an ip address.

You can, but not with Access hosting the data you are looking for. (Hence
the first question.)

I think what you want to do is "push" new data to your remote web server,
versus pulling data from the internal network to the web server. Just
script up a VBS program and run it in cron. Have it attach to the source
datadase, query for the data you want, then dump that into your remote
Database. If you are using mySQL you can still use ODBC for your remote
connection. Otherwise you could feed an XML file (or other structured file,
CSV, tab deliminted et.al) to an admin script and have that parse it and
(re)populate your remote database.

HTH
--
Anthony Baratta
President
Keyboard Jockeys

"Conformity is the refuge of the unimaginative."