Check this link - support.na.sage.com/.../viewdocument.do

I'd also add that your Sage 100 partner (ask Sage if you don't know who it is) would be a good resource, especially since you're probably going to find yourself wanting to get off that version at some point in the near future, lest a windows update come along and stop everyone in their tracks.  I find that with Sage Business Intelligence being as good as it is, I do much of my reporting in there.  If you're handy with Excel, that's worth a look. I think it came out right after 4.4, so that's a post-upgrade consideration.  There is lots of Sage Business Intelligence training online from beginner to advanced.

I created an alias data source (twice, at least) and have tried multiple positions of user ID/password/company identifiers in the string but none seem to work, even on my first refresh.  Much of the discussion I've seen on here has been around using Access to pull data via ODBC, I'm wondering if there is anything specific to the connection string in Excel that I'm missing?  Reading the article you linked to I switched to caps for the user ID, but to no avail.

I'm trying to avoid entering my credentials 3 times to access data from 3 different tables; I can't seem to organize a query between tables in different modules that will return information in a timely manner.

While I can't answer your question on eliminating the need to enter your credentials entirely, you can get it to work with only entering your credentials once.  I like to use Crystal to design the SQL statement and then you can cut and paste the statement into the Excel Data Query tool and then you only have to enter your credentials once when you do a data refresh.

Create a silent DSN with the password in the DSN (per Wayne's link).  Use that DSN as your data source instead of SOTAMAS90.  One DSN per company code... no password prompts, ever.

I've been told that an upgrade is a possibility next year; I'm hoping to find a workable solution until that time.  

Where would I find Business Insights if it is available to me?

Business Intelligence came out with 4.5, I think. And it's much better now than then.  I also like Crystal, to @Tyler's comment. One advantage of SBI is that you can use it for general reporting or financial reporting, and those a two different animals. www.sageintelligence.com/.../

Have you had success querying data from multiple modules via Crystal?  I've been trying to link PO#s and SO#s to item codes in an effort to identify when low inventory parts are coming in and when they will need to go out, but any time I ask the server to provide that data set all I get is the spinning wheel.  I can quickly pull those tables into Excel sheets and then merge them within the book, but then I run into the authentication hurdle I prefer not to deal with.  Again, I'm just starting out with MAS and may be missing something really obvious to an experienced user.

Here's my connection string from the Excel connection:

DSN=SOTAMAS90_Excel;UID=XXX;PWD=1234;Description=MAS 90 4.0 ODBC Driver;Directory=\\[server]\apps\MAS200\ver44\MAS90;Prefix=\\[server]\apps\MAS200\ver44\MAS90\SY\, \\[server]\apps\MAS200\ver44\MAS90\==\;ViewDLL=\\[server]\apps\MAS200\ver44\MAS90\HOME;Company=001;PWD=1234;LogFile=\PVXODBC.LOG;CacheSize=4;StripTrailingSpaces=1;SERVER=NotTheServer

You'll see I am using a silent DSN (I called it an alias above) and I'm only accessing the default company (and no, my password isn't actually 1234...)  Is there something that I'm missing/mixing up in this?  As I mentioned, I tried different locations for the UID, PWD, and Company identifiers.  The string above is what the default spit out; I've tried putting the company ID next to my UID also.

The connection string is created automatically when you use MS Query to initially pull in the data.  As long as you can "test" the DSN fine within the ODBC utility, it should work simply by:

Data- From Other Sources - MS Query... choose your silent DSN from the list and go from there.  Configured properly there should be no password prompt.