Can Firebird be used by multiple network users without breaking Microsoft Windows license?


Short answer: Yes

Long answer:

This depends on the network protocol you use to access Firebird database. Each NetBEUI (Named Pipes) connection uses file access via Windows networking (pipe is a type of file) and requires Windows license. Those connections have a connection string like this:

\\server_name\path\to\database.fdb


However, if you use TCP/IP you can serve unlimited number of clients as it is not restricted by any license. Since TCP/IP is more common and preferred way of accessing the server, we can conclude that this isn't really an issue with Firebird: you can have as many clients as you want. TCP/IP connections have a connection string like this:

server_name:c:\path\to\database.fdb


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