Dr. B, I will truly try to help you with this troubleshooting and will type some between the lines. I can't guarantee and answer, but I can tell you what it is not. It is not a sharing issue. You can change permissions until the cows come home, and it will make no difference. It is not a SQL permissions issue. No one who has little SQL knowledge knows any passwords. But, it is an authentication issue. Your main computer does not trust your laptop for whatever reason and is asking for some ID.
You are not cursed. What you are though, and please don't take offense, is someone with software that is not conducive to networking and you are allowing your business to rely on it. You finally get it right but after a vacation the network has time to de-network so to speak.
The first thing to do is try UNC connection. Go to start and run and type in \\computername and see if you can connect to the main computer. If so, then you should be able to access the database. Try mapping Amazing Charts to the laptop in which case you would have to restart the laptop each time to reconnect, but not always. Also, make a new user with Admin rights with no password and see if it still asks for a password. Finally, please make sure that all three are using the same workgroup name. If two are "workgroup" and your laptop is "MSHOME" that would be your problem.
I think you are making it more difficult by using Vista as the main computer and then trying to connect two different versions. Why not make XP your server and then connect the two Vistas. But, you are going to have to bite the bullet some time. This would be the time. WIN7 is out. Buy ALL WIN7 Pro and start fresh. Then make sure all the networking is for business and not home. I strongly encourgage you to go out tomorrow and purchase all WIN7 and not the starter and not the home version. Get the versions made for businesses and networking. I hate to sound demeaning but you are using Vista Home for a business environment.
Can you access XP with your notebook? Can you access XP with the main computer? If so, there you go. XP is your main computer. And, I hope it is XP Pro.
I truly must be cursed or something, as I've posted before about problems getting my laptop to connect to my main database computer. After tech support helped me and got things fixed, it was working just fine, until I went on vacation...now I'm back and I have a new problem: the laptop can "see" the main computer, but when I try to connect, it asks me for a user name and password, something it didn't ask before. I put in my main computer log on information but no luck. Curiously, my other computer with XP is able to connect to the main one without any problems. Both the main and the laptop have Vista home. I was with tech support trying to get this fixed by doing things like changing file/folder permissions, sharing, etc, with no luck. It seems more of a Vista networking problem than an AC problem, any ideas where I caq find some answers? Thanks!
The main database is in the computer named "Office-PC", which I can continue to use and access any file without any problems,
Steve wasn't asking if you could access files and folders on your main computer from the main computer. I believe he was asking if yould access files from the laptop. You can't, however, because you can't even access that computer. This happens all the time on peer to peers where you see all the computers on the networks but can access some and not all computers. I think changing the user and giving no password may help.
also the front desk XP computer can access it easily through the network. Both computers have their own log-ons with user names and passwords, which work without any difficulty. The laptop has been able to access both without having to enter a password until now, but now when I try to access Office-PC it wants a user name and password, and it won't accept anything I put in there. It can access the XP computer without problems.
One more weird thing I'm noticing, when I first turn on the Office-PC computer and open AC, it works for a little while, then it loses its SQL connection and I have to shut down the computer, re-start it and then it works fine for the rest of the day. I hope this helps clarify the problem.
Dr. B
No, it doesn't help at all. It is just more evidence that you are running a powerful SQL database on a made for home computer. And, I would use the Amazing Utilities to reconnect.
