Creating a DSN
To create a DSN, an ODBC driver for your database must be installed on the Windows
computer running your application server. ODBC (for Open Database Connectivity)
is a software intermediary that lets an application communicate with a database.
For more information, see Interfacing with the database.
Make sure your system has the proper driver for your database. For a list of ODBC drivers on a Windows 95, 98, or NT system, choose Start > Settings > Control Panel, then double-click the ODBC Data Sources icon. (Depending on your system, the icon could also be called ODBC or 32bit ODBC.) When you click the Drivers tab, you’ll see a list of drivers installed on the system. In Windows 2000, choose Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Data Sources, then click the Drivers tab. In Windows XP, choose Start > Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC), then click the Drivers tab.
If the required driver is not installed, then download and install the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 2.5 and 2.6 packages, which you can download for free from the Microsoft website. These packages contain the latest Microsoft ODBC drivers for the most common databases.
Note: Install MDAC 2.5 first, then install MDAC 2.6.
If MDAC does not have an ODBC driver for your database, see your database vendor.
To create a DSN:
Open Windows’ ODBC Data Source Administrator as follows:
In Windows 95, 98, or NT, choose Start > Settings > Control Panel, then
double-click the ODBC Data Sources icon. Depending on your system, the icon
could also be called ODBC or 32bit ODBC.
In Windows 2000, choose Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative
Tools > Data Sources.
In Windows XP, choose Start > Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance
> Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC).
In the dialog box you use to create a DSN connection, click the
Define button.
The ODBC Data Source Administrator appears:
Click the System DSN tab.
The tab displays the list of DSNs currently on your system.
Click Add to add a new DSN to the list.
The Create New Data Source dialog box appears, listing all the drivers currently
loaded on your system.
Select a driver from the list, then click Finish.
For example, if your database is a Microsoft Access file, select Microsoft Access
Driver (*.mdb). If a driver for your product does not appear in the list, you’ll
have to download the driver from a vendor’s website and install it.
In the dialog box that appears, enter a name for the DSN and specify the connection
parameters.
The dialog boxes for specifying parameters differ depending on the driver you
selected. For the Microsoft Access Driver, you enter a name, click Select, locate
the database file on the hard disk, and click OK.
Click OK to close the dialog box.
The new DSN is added to your list of system DSNs.
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