$DSN = 'dbi:ODBC:driver=Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb);dbq='.$Databas
+e;
$DBH = DBI->connect($DSN, undef, undef) 
       || ExitProg(ERR->{odbc},'['.$DBI::errstr.' - '.$DBI::err.']');
$DBH->{LongReadLen}=2048;
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And here is some code I have for connecting to MS SQL Server:

$DSN = 'dbi:ODBC:driver={SQL Server};server={'.$Server.'};database={'.
+$Database.'}';
$DBH = DBI->connect($DSN, undef, undef) 
       || ExitProg(ERR->{odbc},'['.$DBI::errstr.' - '.$DBI::err.']');
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Please note... ExitProg is a sub I use, and is probably not in your program. *Smiles* Also, you will need to fill in the blanks for $Database and $Server as well as set your own value for $DBH->{LongReadLen} (if you use "memo" fields).

One more also... I have "undef, undef" for username and password... if you need those, they are important to fill in. *Grins* (The example snippet was from a program which used Windows authentication to the database.)

Could you point me in the right direction to look for information about... how to connect successfully to MSAccess & SQL Server 2000

I use Win32::ODBC for my connection to the MS SQL Server. I like the syntax that it uses to call stored procedures. A sample connection into the database would be something like:

my $db = new Win32::ODBC( "DSN=INFO;UID=id;PWD=password" );
       if( ! $db )
       {
           die "Error connecting: " . Win32::ODBC::Error() . "\n";
        }
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For my Access database connections I use dbi::ODBC and the call looks like:

my $dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:ODBC:INFO","username","password")
    or die "Unable to connect: " . $DBI::errstr . "\n";
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Note the differences in the way the username and passwords are called in each case. You can either hard code the username and password into the call, or you can place them in a file out of the document root and refer to the file in your call. The "INFO" in each call points to the DSN that is set up through the Windows Admin tools on the server to connect to the database. I'm assuming if you have a DBA background, then you know how to do that.

Most of the information that I needed to understand how to use DBI and Win32::ODBC came from the documentation for the modules and from web searches. Dave Roth has helpful information on Win32::ODBC.

Hope this helps.