The Broadcast Repeater utility allows SQL Anywhere clients to find SQL Anywhere database servers running on other subnets and through firewalls where UDP broadcasts normally do not reach, without using the HOST connection parameter or LDAP.

To use the Broadcast Repeater utility

1. Start a DBNS (database name service) process on any computer in a subnet.

2. Start a DBNS process on any computer in a different subnet and pass the computer name or IP address of the first computer as a parameter (using the address parameter).

   The two DBNS processes make a TCP/IP connection to each other.

3. The DBNS processes now listen for broadcasts on each of their own subnets. Each DBNS process forwards requests over the TCP/IP connection to the other DBNS process, which re-broadcasts the requests on its subnets and also forwards responses back to the originating DBNS process, which sends them to the original client.

4. Regular SQL Anywhere broadcasts on either of the subnets reach database servers on the remote subnet, and clients are able to connect to database servers on the remote subnet without specifying the HOST parameter.

Any number of DBNS processes can communicate with each other. Each DBNS process connects to every other DBNS that it knows about, and the different DBNS processes share their lists of DBNS processes. For example, suppose you start two DBNS processes, A and B. If you start a third DBNS process, C, in a third subnet, passing the address of B to C, then B tells C about A, and C then connects to A.

Running more than one DBNS process in a single subnet is not necessary, and is not recommended.

See also

• Broadcast Repeater utility (dbns11)