Windows Services Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Copyright Outstanding.biz

Version 1.5

Table of Contents:

 

MS Access Warning Messages

1.      Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005' [Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver] Cannot update. Database or object is read-only.

2.      Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005' [Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver] General error Unable to open registry key 'Temporary (volatile) Jet DSN for process 0x4d4 Thread 0x748 DBC 0x84dbc84 Jet'.
(The process, Thread and DCB numbers may vary)

3.      Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005' [Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver] Cannot open database '(unknown)'. It may not be a database that your application recognizes, or the file may be corrupt.

 

General Questions

1.      How do I connect to my MSSQL DB

2.      Why does my site perform better on my local machine?

3.      My Site Worked fine on a non- hybrid system now it is broken – what are the possible causes and what can I do to fix these problems?

4.      My Access DB site is performing poorly on the clustered architecture. What are the possible reasons/solutions?

5.      Can I use Custom DLL’s /Active X components?

6.      Can I use Custom CFM tag’s?

7.      What 3rd Party Components are currently installed?

8.      Which Payment Gateways are installed on the Hybrid Platform?

9.      How are SSL considerations handled on the Hybrid?

10. Which Versions and Supported Components/tags do you support?

 

Coding Examples

ASP

1.      DSN connection for MS Access?

2.  DSN connection for MS SQL?

3.  DSN connection for MySQL?

4.  DSNless Connection for MS Access?

5.  DSNless connection for MS SQL?

6.  DSNless connection for MySQL?

7.  Defining Paths?

 

ColdFusion

1.  DSN connection for MS Access

2.  DSN connection for MS SQL

3.  DSN connection for MySQL

4.  DSNless Connection for MS Access

5.  DSNless connection for MS SQL

6.  DSNless connection for MySQL

7.  Defining Paths?

 

 

MS Access Warning Messages

1.      Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005' [Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver] Cannot update. Database or object is read-only.

Please ensure your database has the proper permissions set.

 

2.      Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005' [Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver] General error Unable to open registry key 'Temporary (volatile) Jet DSN for process 0x4d4 Thread 0x748 DBC 0x84dbc84 Jet'.
(The process, Thread and DCB numbers may vary)

 

 (The process, Thread and DCB numbers may vary)

 

3.      Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005' [Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver] Cannot open database '(unknown)'. It may not be a database that your application recognizes, or the file may be corrupt.

 

The latest MDAC (version 2.7), which is currently installed on our system, is not compatible with Access 97 databases. You may find that your database worked originally, however, once you write data to the database it will throw this error.  In our clustered hosting environment, our main focus is security.  In order for us to maintain our strict security model, our operating systems must be updated with current service packs and patches. If this is an Access 2000 database, it is likely that is it corrupted.

 

 

General Questions

 

1.      How do I connect to my MSSQL DB?

 

Connections for administrative purposes can be made via Microsoft’s Enterprise Manager 2000.  Each database created on the Outstanding.biz system is assigned a unique Database Name, User Name, and Password.  These credentials are used whenever a client attempts to make a connection to the database.

 

 

Start your Enterprise Manager Console, and branch out to the Server group level.

 

At this point you can choose the action menu at the top, and select “New SQL Server Registration” or right click on your server group and choose the same option.

 

 

 

The Register server wizard will start as shown by this screen on the left. 

 

Click “Next” to continue to the next step.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the box called “Available servers” simply type in the following:

 

mssql.megasqlservers.com

 

Click “Add.” 

That should put that new server name into the “Added Servers” box. 

 

Click “Next.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At this stage, choose the 2nd authentication mode: “The SQL Server Login information that was assigned to be by the system administrator.”

 

Click “Next.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Choose a connection option. If you want to login automatically, enter your login name and password in the text boxes provided.

 

Your Login name will be dbm.yourname.com (Substitute your domain name for yourname_com.)

Your password will be the password you chose with your sales representative.Click “Next.”

 

 

 

At this point, the wizard will prompt you to add the newly registered server to your server group.  Select the option labeled, “Add the SQL Server(s) to an existing SQL Server group.”

 

Click “Next.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At this point, the server registration is completed as shown.

 

Click “Finish.”

 

You will now have a new server listed in your Enterprise Manager console. You can branch out this server, branch out the databases, and proceed to your database. There you can perform various   administrative tasks such as create tables, stored

 

 

 

2.      Why does my site perform better on my local machine?

 

Many factors affect a sites performance on any platform.  Usually when a site is under development on an end-users local machine, they are viewing static content which is not required to travel via the internet to serve any requests.

 

3.  My Site Worked fine on a non- hybrid system now it is broken – what are the possible causes and what can I do to fix these problems?

 

  1. Paths – Static paths referenced in client code can cause issues when moving into Outstanding.biz’s Hybrid platform.  It is not uncommon for end-users to reference absolute file paths in their code ex. C:\My Documents\index.html.  Since site content is not stored on local disk, these file path references are invalid.  For sites coded in ASP, we suggest using the Server.MapPath method for defining paths.  For sites coded in ColdFusion, we suggest using the GetDirectoryFromPath method for defining paths.  For more information, please see the coding examples attached below.
  2. COM Objects/DLLS/Active X Controls – The Outstanding.biz System might not support some COM objects that were utilized on the site from the previous hosting provider.  The Outstanding.biz System supports a variety of 3rd party components that have been thoroughly tested
  3. File Permissions – UNIX based file permissions work differently than NT based file permissions.  The correct UNIX permission settings for .asp or .cfm files is -rw-r--r-- or 644
  4. Naming conventions (Case sensitivity) – As mentioned above, the Outstanding.biz System is Case Sensitive.  End-users may believe that they are being hosted on an “Windows Only” base system which are usually Case Insensitive.

 

4.  My Access DB site is performing poorly on the clustered architecture. What are the possible reasons/solutions?

 

For the most part MS Access databases suit web applications reasonably well, however, high traffic sites may benefit from upgrading to a true multi-user database platform such as MS SQL or perhaps even MySQL. 

 

We have found that sporadic performance issues occur when traffic intensive sites run on Microsoft Jet and IIS.  We have ensured that our system is using the latest Microsoft Jet Components and Updates. We recommend that the native Jet OLE DB provider be used in place of the Access ODBC Driver.

 

Excerpt from Readme.txt (IIS)

 

Text Box: For performance and reliability reasons, we strongly recommend the use of Microsoft SQL Server for the deployment of production-quality Web applications. Although Active Server Pages works with any ODBC-compliant database, it has been extensively tested and is designed to work with Microsoft SQL Server. ASP also supports Microsoft Access as a valid data source. Although the sample Web site and examples in this release use Microsoft Access, we recommend that Microsoft Access be used solely for development purposes and not for production. Microsoft Access was designed as a single-user desktop database, and not for server use. When multiple, concurrent users make requests of a Microsoft Access database, unpredictable results may occur. Please note that Microsoft has found the following line from the statement to be incorrect "Microsoft Access was designed as a single-user desktop database".

The following article outlines Microsoft's recommendations to implement an SQL Server Database for use under IIS to accommodate for web, commerce, and transactional applications.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q299973

 

 

5. Can I use Custom DLL’s /Active X components?

 

Custom DLL’s/Active X components are prohibited on the hybrid system.  Components that are poorly coded tend to cause server instability, excessive resource consumption, and reduced site performance.  Since we aim at offering the most stable, robust, and reliable clustered hosting environment, we unfortunately cannot take a chance of putting custom DLL’s into production.

 

6.  Can I use Custom CFM tag’s?

Custom CFM tag’s are prohibited on the hybrid system.  Tags that are poorly coded tend to cause server instability, excessive resource consumption, and reduced site performance.  Since we aim at offering the most stable, robust, and reliable clustered hosting environment, we unfortunately cannot take a chance of putting custom CFM tag’s into production

 

7.  What 3rd Party Components are currently installed?

 

The following 3rd party COM components are currently installed:

ASP Mail                                Jmail                           SmartMail

ASP JPEG                            SA-FileUP                 SmartUpload

ASP Upload                          CDONTS

ASP Encrypt                          CyberOffice Platform 2002

Soapbox Toolkit 2.0 SP1

 

Other components may be installed at the discretion of the Outstanding.biz.

 

8.       Which Payment Gateways are installed on the Hybrid Platform?

 

The following 3rd party Payment Gateways are currently installed:

PayFlow Pro (replacement of Cybercash which is discontinued)

Linkpoint

Moneris (Pay Gateway for ASP and ColdFusion)

PSI Gate

 

Other Payment Gateways may be installed at the discretion of the Outstanding.biz.

 

9.  How are SSL considerations handled on the Hybrid?

 

SSL for ASP or ColdFusion pages are managed identically to HTML pages on the hybrid.  Each server in the Hybrid farm is configured to handle SSL connections from domains within our infrastructure.

To have a domain activated for ASP or ColdFusion SSL, please direct the end-user to the ASP/CFM Enabler in the WebSiteOS.  Please note, this activation could take up to 24 hours to complete.
10.  Which Versions and Supported Components/tags do you support?

 

Application

Version/Supported Tech.

ASP/CF Enabler

ASP V.3 on Win2000 (including: VBScript, JScript, MS XML3) ColdFusion

CGI Support

PERLV.5.006.001         PHP 4.2.2

FrontPage 2002 Extensions

V.2002

Ms Access Database

V.2002 and higher

MS/MY SQL Database

MS SQL =V.2000 MySQL=V.3.23.31

 

ASP Supported Components

 

 

 

 

ASP Mail 4.0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ASP JPEG 1.2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ASP UPLOAD 2.6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ASP Encrypt 2.1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CDONTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JMAIL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SA-FileUP 3.5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soapbox Toolkit 2.0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SP1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CGZIP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SmatMail

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SmartUpload

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

E-Commerce Gateways:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PayFlowPro (replacement of Cybercash which is discontinued)

 

 

 

 

Moneris - PayGateway

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PSI Gate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CyberOffice Platform 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Due to security concerns, Outstanding.biz takes a very conservative position on the installation of any Windows third party components. Requests can be submitted through Outstanding.biz technical support and will be reviewed by a Senior System Administrator. While we support common components, we must ensure the security and stability of any new component prior to installation. For these reasons, we may not support requested components.

 

 

 

 

 

Supported ColdFusion Tags

CFABORT

CFMAIL

CFAPPLET

CFMAILPARAM

CFAPPLICATION

CFMODULE

CFASSOCIATE

CFOBJECT

CFAUTHENTICATE

CFOUTPUT

CFBREAK

CFPARAM

CFCACHE

CFPOP

CFCOL

CFPROCESSINGDIRECTIVE

CFCOLLECTION

CFPROCPARAM

CFCOOKIE

CFPROCRESULT

CFDUMP

CFQUERY

CFERROR

CFQUERYPARAM

CFEXIT

CFREPORT

CFFILE

CFRETHROW

CFFLUSH

CFSAVECONTENT

CFFORM

CFSCHEDULE

CFGRAPH

CFSCRIPT

CFGRAPHDATA

CFSEARCH

CFGRID

CFSELECT

CFGRIDCOLUMN

CFSERVLET

CFGRIDROW

CFSERVLETPARAM

CFGRIDUPDATE

CFSET

CFHEADER

CFSETTING

CFHTMLHEAD

CFSILENT

CFHTTP

CFSLIDER

CFHTTPPARAM

CFSTOREDPROC

CFIF

CFSWITCH

CFELSEIF

CFCASE

CFELSE

CFDEFAULTCASE

CFIMPERSONATE

CFTABLE

CFINCLUDE

CFTEXTINPUT

CFINDEX

CFTHROW

CFINPUT