Starting the database server as an Open Server 
If you want to use SQL Anywhere as an Open Server, you must ensure that you start it using the TCP/IP protocol. By default, the server starts all available communications protocols, but you can limit the protocols started by listing them explicitly in the command. For example, the following commands are both valid: 

[FIXED]  dbsrv11 -x tcpip -n myserver c:\mydata.db[/FIXED]
  
You can use the personal database server as an Open Server for communications on the same computer because it supports the TCP/IP protocol. 
The server can serve other applications through the TCP/IP protocol or other protocols using the SQL Anywhere-specific application protocol at the same time as serving Open Client applications over TDS. 

Database server started at Wed Jan 29 2014 16:22
Trying to start SharedMemory link ...
    SharedMemory link started successfully
Trying to start TCPIP link ...
Starting on port 2638
    TCPIP link started successfully
Now accepting requests

Connection parameter tips
ServerName connection parameter [ENG] 
Specifies the name of a running database server to which you want to connect. This is a synonym for EngineName.
Remarks 
ServerName is not needed if you want to connect to the default local database server.
You need to supply a ServerName if more than one local database server is running, or if you want to connect to a network server.
The server name is interpreted according to the character set of the client computer. 

DatabaseName connection parameter [DBN] 
If the database you want to connect to is already running, you should specify the database name rather than the database file.
A connection will only occur if the name of the running database matches the name that is specified in the DatabaseName (DBN) parameter. 
Note
If you specify both the database file and the database name, an attempt is made to connect to a running database with the specified name (the database file is ignored), and if that fails, an attempt is made to autostart a database using both the database file and database name. 

Example 
To start a database file named cities.db and rename the database Kitchener, you can use the following command: 
dbeng11 cities.db -n Kitchener

Assuming you have run the above command, you can successfully connect to the running database named Kitchener as follows:
DBN=Kitchener

Connecting to a server on a network 
To connect to a database running on a network server somewhere on a local or wide area network, the client software must locate and connect to the database server. SQL Anywhere provides a network library to handle this task. 

Network connections occur over a network protocol. TCP/IP is available on all platforms. 

Connecting from SQL Anywhere APIs 
To establish a connection, the client application calls functions in one of the SQL Anywhere interfaces. SQL Anywhere provides the following interfaces: 
 
-OLE DB Connecting to a database using OLE DB 
-ADO.NET Connecting to a database 
-Embedded SQL SQL Anywhere embedded SQL 
-Sybase Open Client Using SQL Anywhere as an Open Server

Sybase Open Client API
iAnywhere JDBC driver Connecting from a JDBC client application

SQL Anywhere JDBC API
jConnect JDBC driver Connecting from a JDBC client application

SQL Anywhere JDBC API

The interface uses connection information included in the call from the client application, perhaps together with information held in a data source, the SQLCONNECT environment variable, or the server address cache, to locate and connect to a server running the required database. The following figure is a simplified representation of the pieces involved.