Question:
Do I have to duplicate DSNs on the development PC and the Web server for Visual InterDev to work, or can I use the Data Source on the Web server?

Answer:
To make them work properly, you need to duplicate them. Everyone seems to have trouble with data source names (DSNs) in Visual InterDev 1. The problem is that the workstation and the Web server need different paths to the same database, but the global.asa file offers only one or the other.
Rather than fuss with File DSNs, here’s a trick that uses system DSNs on networked client and server machines to point to the same database.

First, on the client machine, map the Web server as a network drive. For instance, in my case, the Drive on the client is H: and the Path is \p75c$ (you need administrator rights on the Web server to do this).

Second, go to the Web server and using the ODBC icon in Control Panel, create a system DSN that points to the database. In my case, my system DSN is “dsndemo” and the database is “c:inetpubwwwrootdsndemosampledb.mdb”.

Third, go back to the client machine (that runs Visual InterDev) and create a machine (system) DSN with the same name as on the server (“dsndemo”) and point it to the database on the Web server using the network drive. In my case the path is “H:inetpubwwwrootdsndemosampledb.mdb”.

Fourth, in Visual InterDev, add a data connection that uses the system DSN you just created.

Finally, edit your global.asa file from within VID. The line you need to edit should look something like this:Session("DataConn_ConnectionString") ="DSN=dsndemo;DBQ=H:Inetpubwwwrootdsndemosampledb.mdb;DriverId=25;FIL=MS Access;MaxBufferSize=512;PageTimeout=5;“. Cut out DBQ=H:Inetpubwwwrootdsndemosampledb.mdb; and leave the rest. When you save and close the global.asa file, you’re using a system DSN that points to the database on the server.

You should be able to work in VID 1.0’s Data View while the Web server has access to the same database.