Case Study

Apollo vs. Advantage Internet Server (AIS)

Author: Dennis Hunsaker

I read a post several days ago regarding Apollo Database Server usage. Sorry to bring it up again. We fought with the Advantage Internet Server package in combination with the FiveWin for Clipper environment for a long time. I have several apps using the combination in production for a couple of years now. We are using the Advantage server on a Novell File Server and have a proxy server with access to the Internet.

Things you should know, we had several issues regarding speed that were never resolved. Also, because we were using AIS, we seemed to have strange errors with time-outs where at one point our client app said the database wasn't there and a moment later, it said it was.

We had to write an Internet capable R&R report generator and server using our FoxPro style databases a little over a year ago. We used BLOBs in memo fields to transfer report outputs and with WinClipper it worked. When we wrote it in Delphi, and used the new Advantage Client32 component, the BLOB fields crashed and we were never able to resolve it with the technical staff at Advantage. Since we couldn't wait and we needed a 32-bit R&R client/server arrangement we modified a couple parameters in the Apollo BLOB functions and were able to mimic the old Advantage BLOBs using Apollo and it is now functioning perfectly.

In addition, all of our speed concerns have all been addressed by the Apollo staff. So count us in the group of people that switched from Advantage to Apollo.