xfODBC has various features and settings that enable you to control users’ access to data. Access to a Synergy database and the system catalog is controlled either by level-based users and groups or by privilege-based users. Table access levels also play a part, though that varies depending on the type of user. See the page Managing access with users, groups, and table settings for a complete discussion of these features, and note the following:

1. Do not use the default passwords (which can be found in the documentation for xfODBC).
2. It’s a good idea to omit the password from the DSN.
3. For .NET applications, we recommend storing the connection string in a data file. See Connection strings on the page “Accessing Synergy data in a .NET environment.”
4. A very powerful option is to use encryption by specifying the -e option with vtxnetd/vtxnet2, so that all traffic across the network is encrypted. See Using data packet encryption for SQL OpenNet for more information, and note that enabling encryption with SQL OpenNet may affect performance.