DSNless MSAccess Connections

[DJJ]

Has this functionality been removed lately? I has a customer who has several sites which use DSNless connections, and he's asking if this has recently been changed to only supporting DSN-only connections. He's quite annoyed that he may be faced with the prospect of updating multiple pages on his sites to DSN connections.

Or was this all part of the 'system down for a bit' problem?

[jmbeach]

considering you cannot use ODBC for Access connections, there would be no reason DSN-less would not be allowed.

Must have been due to the outtage.

[Carly]

The only thing we're not supporting with Access is the ODBC driver. If he's connecting using the Jet OLE DB driver, then he shouldn't be having a problem. You should submit a trouble ticket on this so we can take a look at it.

I still recommend (as does Microsoft) to use a SQL database rather than Access for Internet apps.

[DJJ]

I agree that he should be using SQL Server... but he is using and wants to use Access... he's adamant about it, and I guess that's his perogative, as he's paying for the account.

Have the drivers been updated or anything?

He hasn't changed anything his end.

[Carly]

Nope - no changes have been made. But when Access hangs, or there are too many connections, we have to reboot the server to clear it (which is why Access is not as efficient on an Internet server as SQL).

Submit a trouble ticket & we'll take a look at what may be causing it.

[jmbeach]

is he using a connection like the following:

PROVIDER=MICROSOFT.JET.OLEDB.4.0;DATA SOURCE=C:\hshome\<hsphere-acct-name>\database\datafile.mdb

That should work fine, of course like Carly said unless if he's got a bunch of users hitting at the same time.

[DJJ]

Thanks JMBeach and Carly.

I'm just calling the customer to see if he's still having problems now that the router has restarted. If he is I'll put a TT in.

Thanks again.

[Carly]

If his acct was on NT30, there was a permissions problem on one of the Temp directories. I'm not entirely sure how it changed itself, but it has been fixed. If he's on another server & still having problems, please submit a TT

[DJJ]

Carly - his account is on NT30, and it all fixed now. The permissions problem must have been preventing the locking file (ldb) from being created. He's reported that it's all working again now.

Who works on a Sunday anyway! He's cool anyway, so no probs this end.

Thanks heaps for the posts. You're a gem.

[cambodia]

Originally Posted by DJJ

Carly - his account is on NT30, and it all fixed now. The permissions problem must have been preventing the locking file (ldb) from being created. He's reported that it's all working again now.

Who works on a Sunday anyway! He's cool anyway, so no probs this end.

Thanks heaps for the posts. You're a gem.

sorry don't want to distrub but just notice that most of australian use word " heap " replace of alot or much , , anyway i use both , for small web i use ms.access if store a lot of database i use MSSQL ( but MSACCESS is dangerous when they found our database file name )

[dpyers]

You shoulw always put an access db outside of your root web space so it can't be accessed by http/ftp protocols. Also helps to change the .mdb extension to a script language or exe extension - something that the web server will try to interpret or execute rather than serve up directly. Or even drop the extension entirely.
The Jet DB engine will try to open any file as access that you tell it to - doesn't need the .mdb extension to work.

[generic]

Originally Posted by dpyers

You shoulw always put an access db outside of your root web space so it can't be accessed by http/ftp protocols. Also helps to change the .mdb extension to a script language or exe extension - something that the web server will try to interpret or execute rather than serve up directly. Or even drop the extension entirely.
The Jet DB engine will try to open any file as access that you tell it to - doesn't need the .mdb extension to work.

any downside to this, sounds like a great security option?

[Brangwyn]

No downsides at all really, definitely something everyone should do when using MS Access DB's.

[generic]

I always place them outsied the public access, just never knew I could change the extension for added security.

[Silverbug]

Yeah that is a good idea.