I want to second this recommendation. Using DBD::Proxy and DBI::ProxyServer is a very good approach to NT/Unix cross-platform database access. The only drawback is that you will have one server process more on the database server. You might have to fiddle with the default transfer unit lengths if you transfer a lot of BLOB stuff, like image data or so. I have used this approach several times at work, and it is the perfect thing to do if you need the access only for a limited time, like when you are porting legacy data. Much easier to install then anything else, IMHO.

Christian Lemburg
Brainbench MVP for Perl
http://www.brainbench.com