Network Busy Messages

What are network busy and access denied messages?

Before editing or updating records, CAPITAL "locks" the required records to ensure that no other user can change them while they are being updated by someone else. This "lock" information is stored in what is called a share table on the file server. The file server is the computer that holds the CAPITAL database files on its hard disk.

If a computer crashes before releasing its lock information, records may remain locked for long periods of time or even indefinitely. This can seriously inconvenience users and it may also prevent your back-up software from working properly. It may even make it appear as if all the computers on your network have "locked up" or just stopped.

Whether the file server is smart enough to release the locks automatically when a machine that made those locks disconnects, or after a certain time-out period, is dependent on the features and capabilities of the network operating system you are using. In many cases the file server may have to be shut-down and re-booted in order to reset the share table.

CAPITAL operations that have global affect will lock entire databases, not just single records. For example, if a user runs the Release Back Orders operation, CAPITAL will not allow the entry of new back orders mid-way through processing.

To mimimise record lock conflicts run global operations at agreed upon times during the day.

If you are getting network busy error messages for no apparent reason, i.e., even when you are running only one copy of CAPITAL at a time, or network temporarily unavailable messages, this may be because you have not allocated enough share file space on your network or the memory limit has been exceeded. Share space allocation under Windows is normally automatic. To test whether the problem is caused by running out of share space, the file server should be powered down and rebooted. Be sure to apply "service packs" to your network operating system periodically, which can help to resolve many networking problems.

1/12/01