Unable to access file when copying data

[mensgiftshop]

Hi there,

We are long term Business customer but new to EPOS. Current set up Back Office and Front Till linked via a basic XP network. Each pc has Norton Antivirus. Most things work as expected but when new products are added on the back office where data.mdb is held I understand to update the till we have to select the update data from server option. When we does this the following happens.

First we get an Access Error which states it can't open the file. We press OK
Then serveral error boxes with 0 in. Each time we press ok
It eventually ends with Error setting global variable from main database and the software will not work and of course the data is not updated. To resovle the issue we have to copy the data.mdb and checkout.mde files from the back office to the till.

We have a long outstanding ticket with tech support but with no soloution as yet.

I have turned off windows firewall incase there was an issue here but the same issue happens. I have other application which access my C drive without a problem.

Any answers or suggestions would be welcome as I am nearing the point of dumping the software and returning to my old solution.

[Neil_P]

Can you connect to server databases from the till under the CONNECT tab in the SETUP - THIS TILL option?

Also if you are copying the Checkout.mde file from the server to the till aren't you overwriting the till settings with those from the server? Never tried it so I don't know for sure, the data.mdb file is the one which contains your stockfile. I would make sure that the till is using the correct paths to the databases, and that it can connect OK in the setup screen.

From previous experience, If you don't access the internet from the till PC then I would also uninstall any other virus/firewall applications. As long as your connection is secure on the server there is no point in having extra security on your network. I have 2 NIC's on my back office, one for the network which is open, the other for the internet which is firewalled (and firewalled again in the router). I have had similar problems with other applications which ultimately all came down to security software blocking them from accessing the network. Incidentally, if the till shares an internet connection on the server that can also cause network conflicts, even if you don't use it, something to do with the way it configures the port.

I am assuming that the network is ok and you can swap files between the pc's ok outside of actinic?

I know Epos has its faults, but I've had no issues at all with regard to exchanging data (and I have 2 tills connected to the Back office), which would suggest that the fault lies elsewhere in your system setup/hardware.

[mensgiftshop]

Network Setup

Everything else seems to work ok. We can transfer, copy, open and alter files from any of the pc's in other applications. The path is correct in the network set up that has been checked and when we add products on the back office they are viewable on the Till in look up and you can book them in and print tickets, the problem occurs when you try and sell the item it comes up with invalid barcode because the data has not been copied to the local data.mdb which is what happens when you press the update data from server option in the menu. The system seems to be updating my stock as we sell it which surely would involve communcating with my back office where the main data.mdb is held. Also if it was a network issue surely the Z report would crash? As for copying the checkout.mde we were advised by tech support only to do this after the Z report had been run and you don't seem to loose any till settings.

The till does have access to the internet via the main router on the network, but does not get emails etc.

I am happy to take off the internet connectionn and de-install Norton on the till if I could see a logical reason as to why this would work. What do you think?

[Neil_P]

Hi Sean,

If Tech Support can't help then I assume that there are no known issues that Actinic are aware of. On that basis, as I said earlier it must have some thing to do with your system setup/configuration.

If you can access other apps and transfer data OK, then I would rule out the shared Internet Connection causing issues. IMO I would still uninstall Norton and try again, you have nothing to lose, if it makes no difference simply install it again. A quick search of google with throw up lots of incidences of script running problems with Norton installed,so it's worth a try.

Let me know how it goes.