Home Forums Discussions Problems Lots of Lost Connections to Database Lately

Has anybody had an increase in lost connection to database lately? And no it is not simply a network issue because it is happening even on the main P2P server within itself might we say.

So late last night I ran Amazing Utilities, "Fix a Malfunctioning Database" obviously not interfering with it in any fashion so as to not mess it or the database up. So when I went to log in as myself, the blue log in window came up, I typed my password and stuff and that is when AC could not wake up or connect to itself, both on the main machine or on one of the laptops. So I re-booted everything including modem and router, main server machine and the laptop too, all in proper sequence and stil the same results. I even tried to log in as my provider too and that failed as well.

So I ran the utility again, It said all was good at the end of doing its thing. Things seem to have improved but still there were one or two loses of connection to one of the two laptops today. I'm starting to wonder if there was some sort of update to an MS program that might be making AC not completely thrilled living in such an enviornment. I also have the little yellow shield in my tool bar of the main machine, but I have yet to install it. I didn't want to add a confounding variable to the mix here while trying to tease things apart. The available update is for Net.framework 1.1 or someting like that. I'm almost wondering if it might actually be helpful in some sort of a way at this point.

Any thoughts or other similar glitches out there with any of you folks in AC user land??? Nancy is staying late tonight but I will tell her to keep her eyes peeled just incase one of your helpful folks write back tonight. Thanks much.
Paul and Nancy

I am getting that "lost database" message quite frequently also. It's not happening on most other computers, and I guess I was attributing it to my jumping in & out of AC frequently during the day. We are having problems with other things as well in the last few weeks. I emailed AC support, but no response yet. I guess misery loves company??

Never say it is not a network issue. They are always trying to make things difficult. But, it is strange that you can't access the database on the same PC. Not knowing your network and the fact that it is intermittent, makes it difficult; but here are a few troubleshooting steps that may help or give valuable information back.

1. Go to the log on screen and right click just under your office name. This will bring up a window showing your database path. Make sure it is showing the correct path to your database. If you are seeing it intermittently, it should be set correctly. Besides, generally if the path is not correct, you will get an error message or the window asking you to choose a path.
2. You may want to choose Yes and disconnect your paths. Then restart and connect again. Why would that work? It shouldn't, but it's simple.
3. Check your software firewalls. Again, why now, I don't know. But, with Windows Firewall as with most software firewalls, you can easily exclude Amazing Chart's executable file and insure you have access to it. It may already show that it does.
4. To make sure your actual database is not corrupt, you can move it out of the folder or rename it (my favorite way). i.e. AmazingCharts.old. Then move another database from a folder that is not your server and see if you can connect to it. If you can consistently connect there, you would have your answer.
5. You may want to download another copy or the newest version after saving your databases to your desktop and then copy them back in to insure the files are OK and not corrupt.

It's always a good idea to see what updates Microsoft is sending to you. .Net Framework is fine. It's basically a large chunk of code designed to allow new programs to use as part of their application. This is why some new programs won't install until you have the latest .Net. 1.1 is actually fairly old. I believe 3.0 is the newest. I would probably run Windows Update and see if it is there. Not sure why you are only getting that. Before doing that, though, go to Add/Remove programs and see what .Net Frameworks you have.

Hope this helps.

@Donna - Very nice grammar. "my jumping" Not many people would use the possessive pronoun before a gerune.

This has been happening to me as well. I thought it was perhpas the connection on the laptop as it happens most often on one particular machine most of the time...

BERT,
Okay smart aleck, I had to google "gerune". According to AngelFire (freaky little website), gerune is a "mischievous little race that delights in the pain of others". (So far, so good) "This race has no knowledge of machines" (which I assume can mean computers, so still right on the money!). Is that what you meant, 'cause it fits me perfectly!! If not, forgive my jumping to the wrong conclusion.

Donna, I googled "gerune", and I would be very suprised if the rest of that description fits you!

http://www.angelfire.com/pa3/BlackStar/gerune.htm

Hopefully, Bert meant "gerund", and we would stand a chance against you in hand-to-hand combat.

Actually Brian, the description is fairly correct. I obviously didn't get too far into the website! I was surprised to be described as a "lesser" demon, and always attributed my darker markings to age spots. And of course, my eyes haven't really glowed red since the 70's! Since gerunes align with evil and anarchists, I guess that's why you, Bert and I have so much in common? Stay tuned for my next adventure in gerund-ing...

OK, I have to weight in and, unfortunately, my wit is not as sharp as either of yours. I must have inadvertently stumbled upon a Freudian slip that I didn't even know existed. I hope it ended up being comical and not insulting.

I have a few loves in life including sports, medicine (well I used to) and English. I minored in English. This is not the English that forces you or allows you to read literature such as Rudyard Kipling's, Feed The Elephant's New Clothes. Or is that Don't eat in clothes worn by elephants? Anyway...

One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone uses the non-possive pronoun such as me instead of the possive pronoun, my when it precedes a gerund. A gerund is a tricky little part of grammar which describes a word which is half verb and half noun. Words like running or swimming when used in a certain context. So, the sentence, "Would you like to come watch my playing tennis today?" is correct; the sentence, "Would you like to come watch me playing today?" is not only bad grammar but is hideous to listen to. It takes awhile but like anything after awhile, it is picked up rather easily. I can hear an improper pronoun before a gerund as well as Beethoven could hear one wrong note in an entire symphony. I hear it on shows like Mike and Mike in the morning on ESPN radio constantly, and it drives me crazy.

So, when I saw the sentence, "...attributing it to my jumping...," I was rather impressed.

Now, I have not read the latest on gerunes, but my guess is they would also use the proper grammar. The irony is I am also a stickler for spelling and spend more time correcting my MAs spelling in the HPI than if I had just written it myself. But, I still make typos. Sorry.

You're awesome, Bert!

I am no grammarian, and had no idea what the rule was. For all I knew, you were making fun of Donna for abusing the verb/gerund relationship!

This User Board is educational!

Bert,
But if I was asking as follows; "Would you like to come watch "me" play (not playing) hockey?", that would be correct as opposed to the example you posted, yes? So it would be, "come watching my playing", verses, "come watch me play"

I've always sucked at spelling and the like and althought I have a poor actual "knowledge" of the rules of such things, I'm pretty good at getting them correct by the old seat of the pants method of this does or does not feel so right.

Thanks for the english lession, my mother in law with love it...
Paul

We have been seeing alot of this too. There seems to have been an increase in this type of error after the last release (or was it two?)

No, I think it has to do with the phase of the moon and stars. We've seen this too.. and dropped TWO wireless routers in TWO days. <sigh> Guess what **I'M** doing this weekend???

Seriously, our wired machines have had no problems, but all of our wireless users have seen a lot of this.

Sunspots? Who knows, but since the PROGRAM hasn't changed, it's not the software.

Regards,

V.

That would be correct, because 'play' is a verb and not a gerund. BUT....it should be "But if I "WERE" asking and not if I "WAS" asking.

The rule there is basically if an event has not happened, the being verb "were" is correct. But, if the even has occurred, the being verb "was" is correct. Was in past tense. A good tip is almost any time you use the word "if" in the sentence that in and of itself implies it may not have happened. So, it's always "if I were to go and not if I was to go."

Lost Connections to Database frequently happends if your "main" computer is busy running another tasks. Fo example, it happens every time when I happen to pull a chart while my main computer is backing up Amazing chart database to another computer.

apricot,

Hi. A couple of things. Just curious, why are you backing up AC while your working, i.e. pulling a chart, etc.

Second, I am not sure how you are backing up the database, but almost anyway I can think of should barely be detected by your "server" unless you are using like 128Mbs of RAM with an extremely slow processor. While it is never a good idea to back up an entire server say, for example, with Backup Exec during office hours, while it would slow you down somewhat, it should never cause a database to disconnect. This has never happened to me, at least the way it is being described on this thread, but if you are experiencing connection problems, there is either something wrong with AC's database and/or AC or there is an issue on your PC. Just my thoughts

Bert:

When you back up your database, doesn't your database become unavailable during the "backing up" process?

You should NEVER back up an open database! You're SUPPOSED to get the message that the connection is lost in this instance - as the file is locked so it can be backed up in once piece without changes. If the file is ALTERED while it is being backed up, the backup file will be broken!

Backing up is GOOD.. but knowing that your backup IS GOOD is just as important.

Regards,

V.

Brian, it is very much the opposite. You can pretty much always access all of your files and data including databases during a backup, although it is not a good idea for two reasons: first, it will slow you down quite a bit and, second, as Vinny says, it can affect your backup.

While it is never a good idea to tempt fate, VSS and Open File Backups has avoided this problem. When an .mdb is accessed an .ldb is created showing a locked database. These files will most likely not be backed up properly, if at all. There are databases that run all the time, and older backup programs worked by having a scheduled stop of the database.

Backup programs such as BackupAssist or Veritas, now Backup Exec, use Open Files Backup, in which the first phase of the backup is a snapshot taken of all of the open files and then there is a second phase where the Backup program backs up all of the files and the snapshot.

Volume Shadow Copy which is available on Server 2003 works similarly, but is a better concept in that it is a read only backup and takes multiple, multiple snapshots in incremental form. Read/write can still take place.

With programs like eMedware, none of the files will be backed up as they will be reported as locked if even one person left their program open and accessing the database. This is why it is ALWAYS preferred to log off rather than to lock the computer at the end of the day. And, as alluded to by Vinnie, one should check that their backups are indeed good every one to two weeks.

But, in short, yes you can access the database during backups.

What I was referring to im my first post which may have been misunderstood was the mere fact of "copying and pasting" a folder should't affect computer performance.

Well, I use SmartSyncPro for automatic backup. It backs up my Amazing Chart database files automatically every 30 minutes. There is no way I can close the database during automatic back up, simply because I don't know when it is going to happen. So far it has been working well, only on few occasions I get "lost of connection" message, so I wait for a few seconds and connection is restored.

apricot,

It is all risk/benefit. I agree with Vinny. I think the way you are doing it is most likely OK. There are other backup programs that can do "real time" backups and work with databases.

Just a suggestion: You may want to compromose and do backups every four hours rather than every thirty minutes. Just a thought. You shouldn't be losing connection at all, and that is a symptom that something is up.

I understand your method, but just keep in mind that Vinny has been doing networking and databases for over 20 years from what I gather.

Hi Gang

The way Amazing Charts works is that while you're not actively looking something up, the file is unlocked. You can remove the file, and then put it back, and THEN look something up, and AC won't ever know it was gone during the time you were not using it.

Most backup programs do indeed lock the file while it is being copied. Fortunately, the files copy quickly, and most of the time you won't see it.

The .ldb file is a database lock file, and does not need backing up. On rare occasions (computer crash during an AC write - rare) the database remains locked, and removing this file unlocks it, but this is to be done only in the event everything is locked up.

Regards,

V.

I also significantly reduced frequency of "lost connections" by excluding Amazing Charts folder from the antivirus/firewall program, so database/imported files are accessed w/o being scanned.

Oh geeze.. yes, DEFINITELY exclude the AC database from virus scanning! Most of the virus scanners are slow as heck and open the file for exclusive access, which will give you the "lost connection" message.

I DO advise though scanning the imported items folder regularly if any imported items are placed there directly. I just don't advise scanning this during working hours.. or for that matter scanning ANYTHING except fresh downloads or e-mail during regular hours. Over the network it really slows things down!

V.

I feel left out. Tonight I am going to try as hard as I can to get this disconnect message. I think I will run my virus scanner, my trojan scanner, my spyware scanner and my adware scanner and do a backup all while accessing AC. LOL <G>

Guys,
I always kick everybody off AC for the few moments it takes to make a copy of the AC folder for back-up. I thought it was one of those database "have to do" and that reading or writing to the database while copying was one of the "deadly sins" of backing up your data. I have always been fairly anal about this one.

How about the "save" back-up button I have been asking for much like QuickBooks that allows one to send or assign the backup to whatever source they choose and AC formats and saves the folders in a way that it likes best of all, much like the off-site back-up does right now??? PLEASE.....

Do you do your backups of AC during the day while people are still writing to it?

We backup first thing in the morning, by the staffer who arrives first, or on Friday when she is absent I back up from home, late Thursday night.
Bert if you want the dropped connection, use Linksys and get about 4 laptops on at once. Then get several cell phones on in the area. I consistently loose the connection when I unplug the lap top, move to the next room all at the same moment as it is trying to open the next chart, when it was idle for a minute or so.
We are testing some 'thin clients' in two of our exam rooms to allow us to be hard wired so we can phase linksys out.

Guys,
No I kick everybody off AC for the few moments I takes me to copy the folder to our external harddrives that we use for redundant back-up here. That way I know for sure that there is nobody reading or writing to the main database. I just always thought that was a "stone tablets" kind of database thing to be sure one got a good clean copy of the database.

But again and again, "how about a nice clean in AC kind of Utility that makes great back-ups that we know AC has sniffed them, and formatted them in a way she likes best of all. And with that a "restore" function that can take any one of those back-ups and easily put it back on the system??? Any Quickbooks user knows just what I'm taking about. It takes the idiot user out of the equation and makes it almost foolproof, giving one perfect back-ups every time. Most quality database programs prefere this so as to make sure their customer's data is safe and it keeps their tech support issues way down.....

@Doc, a good reason to stay with Cat6 I guess. Sorry you are having troubles.

@Paul, I still cannot understand why you are doing your backups when people are still working. I know it's not because you are trying to get out early, because like many of us, you never do

I am not so sure the backup will ever be implemented. I have some ideas, and these are NOT workarounds; just other ways of doing the same thing.

It sounds as though you may be doing one backup per day and not making multiple backups. I can't recall.

If you set up folders where you are copying and pasting to now, and then run SyncToy, you could save yourself time and energy of having to copy and paste all the time. Again, SyncToy is free and very easy to set up. You could easily set up five backups, Monday through Friday, and simply click on Monday to back up Monday, Tuesda....etc.

Another option, which would be ever better if it could be modified would be to make a shortcut from the AC folder of the AmazingUtility tool. Then, you can click on this and it will not only clean up your databases, it will back each one of them up. Of course, these backups will be inside the AC folder. They would be good if a database became corrupted, but if you lost the entire folder, you would be out of lucky. They are dated, so you could do a different backup each day.

What would be cool is if we could choose the path of the backups so they don't go to the AC folder by default.

It makes sense to backup AC database during the day to avoid data loss. I run automatic backups to the local folder every 30 min, and to another computer and USB every 2 hours. In case of failure I would only lose data for the last 30 minutes, as compared to the entire day data loss if no backup done through the day.

Apricot,

I actually do the same thing in real time. However, it isn't necessary a good idea, because there can always be issues when users are accessing data at the same time it is being backed up. For me, the risk/benefit leans toward the backup.

BUT, may comments about not backing up during the day are not in reference your timed backups, but to Paul and others who have stated they back up during the day. My understanding is that this is Paul's only backup during the day in which case it would not make good sense, especially since he is asking all his users to exit the AC program to do it. I am really hoping that he is not copying and pasting the folder at many times during the day.

Bert,
Actually I hardly ever back-up during working hours, although sometimes because we all should make back-ups before certain procedures or the like, when such does happen, yes I kick the ladies of of AC for a few moments while I copy our main AC folder for back-up.

And yes we do usually make one back-up per day at the end of the day (twice over to two separate drives, one which stays on-site, while the other goes home with us every night for off-site back-up purposes). But like yesterday before I tried to play with the Sync feature, I kicked everyone off of AC, made an extra pre-sync back-up to at least one external drive (just in case) and kept everyone off until I was done trying to play (which didn't work BTW) with Sync.

I do like the idea of using AU (not United Artists, UA) to make the copies to then cut and paste to somewhere else which makes nice back-ups that AC likes all while "tuning" the database daily. But see, with a little extra added to AU, AC could do this for us in a keep the idiot user out of the equation type of way and we could assign that back-up to any external source. It just seems like such a glaring oversight. A simple "save" button like almost every other program in the world. What gives, really???

This came up in an another thread, and I can't remember which one. I remember thinking it was a a good idea at the time. Please get me a link to that thread and/or re-explain *exactly* how this would work. It seems like a very promising idea.

Not sure what other thread this came up in, but I have talked about the two possibilities that are not available at the time which would be very helpful.

What was mentioned above was simply taking advantage of the Data Maintenance: Compact and maintain your databases. When you do this from any computer, it compacts your databases but not before it backs them up. So, you have database backups, but they are located in the same folder, so they aren't all that safe. Better than nothing. Not sure how difficult it would be, but if we had the option of where to back those up, it would solve the whole problem of database backups while tuning the databases at the same time.

The other way that would be helpful would be to make the offsite backup also an onsite backup. The offsite backup would still be $250 annually while the onsite backup could be free. If you don't use offsite backup, then you will not be familiar with the process. But, basically, when you backup offsite using that feature, it first makes a compressed and encrypted file containing all databases. These are stored on the computer you back up from (which should be the way the other is done). So, when I back up to offsite, I not only get that backup, but I also get an encrypted one on a local workstation. So, you in effect get a backup. The other good feature of this would be for those who back up to thumb drives. It makes me nervous to consider NON-encrypted databases going back and forth on small thumb drives, but this way you would alleviate that problem. Unfortunately, you can't make the local backup if you haven't paid for a license for the offsite backup. Easy enough to change. Simply don't allow one access to the offsite backup site if they don't have a license.

OK, one more pitch for SyncToy. Then I will stop promise. I don't work for Microsoft and I make no money from them. I must disclose I am a Microsoft Partner but that has nothing to do with this. I have no idea why Microsoft would make anything for free, but they continue to churn out new versions and now have a Beta version out: 2.0.

Before I sound off a bit, I would like to give credit to SmartSync Pro, a program recommended on here around six to nine months ago by another user. Quite a few tried it and liked it. It does have more features and is easier to schedule. I don't think it is free unless you don't use the Pro version. Could be wrong.

One of the reasons I have talked about SyncToy, is in answer to the few on here who ask for a one-button backup. That is the beauty of ST, it is so simple. And, once set up, you click to open it, click to run, and it's done. And, it takes maybe all of 30 seconds so you know you are backed up. You can set up just one folder pair or 300.

Although, I use it frequently, I decided to try it from this computer. Made a new folder on the desktop, although you can make a new folder while setting up the folder pair, went to the site, downloaded and installed, set up the folder pair and ran it; all in less than three minutes.

I will list some sites that talk about SyncToy 1.4 and 2.0 Beta.

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,64549/description.html

http://www.pchell.com/support/synctoy.shtml

The Wiki site:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SyncToy

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/prophoto/synctoy.mspx

Microsoft suggests feedback here: (cool site)

http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto.

White paper:

http://download.microsoft.com/downl...3e-90e4d4ff36f6/SyncToyWhitePaper1_1.doc

SyncToy Beta 2.0

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/10/25/synctoy-2-0/

http://lifehacker.com/software/feat...onize-folders-with-synctoy-20-326199.php

Two awesome posts, Bert.

The idea of the local encrypted backup is brilliant, and needs to be reposted as an original post on "Wish List".

The SyncToy post may be the answer to a problem me and Jim were talking about yesterday. There is excellent content there, and that post needs to be copied and added to your Tips & Tricks thread on "3rd party synchronization and backup applications".

I will definitely look at that. Unfortunately, the first one can't really be put on the Tip list, because at this point it is not doable. I am not sure if it would be something that could be changed -- I think it could -- but unless Vinny or Jon did that, it won't happen. For those who do not have offsite backups, they can't really see how it would work. But, when you click on offsite backup, it makes the backup locally, then loads it automatically into a special window (used to be browser), then you click to send it over the Internet. I don't see why when you click there, the offsite server couldn't check for authenticity to see if the patient has an account. This would allow everyone to back up locally and those who have a subscription to back up offsite.

Hello all,

I'm very new to the AC forum, but have a very similar problem to this one. I'm helping a Doc set up his network with AC and we're running a Windows XP Pro Peer to Peer network. We have no problems when the receptionist is scheduling and the Doc is using AC, but when the nurse tries to log in we get locked up. (Not right away, but within 15 minutes or so). We tried this scenario on several different computers, so don't think that it's a specific computer, but it sounds like what's happening to hockeyref. All of a sudden, we get the hourglass on all computers running AC, and a message saying we lost the connection. If we reboot the main computer, then we can usually get the connection back for the Doc. It's only AC that locks up...the internet connection is fine. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

j

Hi Jana,

Welcome to AC and the AC forum. Sorry about your issues. A few questions.

1. What is the processor speed and RAM in the main computer?
2. Are they all XP Pro
3. Is it wireless or wired?
4. How many computers are on the network?
5. How many users are accessing the AC database?
6. Are you using any hardware such as a hub or switch?
7. What is the main computer used for other than hosting AC?

Then Bert who obviously can't read since 'Wish' looks nothing like 'Tips' said:


I will post it there.