Thread: Problem connecting from Windows 9x/Me

Problem connecting from Windows 9x/Me

From
Harry Sufehmi
Date:
Hi,

Thank you for the ODBC driver, it has enabled us to access the PostgreSQL
server from our Windows 2000 & XP machine.
However, people on Windows 9x/Me machines are having problems.

Basically, everytime they open the MS Access application, the application
failed with the following error message:
"ODBC -- connection to 'pgsql_sir' failed."

There's a workaround for this - if we create a new table link to the
PostgreSQL database, then afterwards everything works fine. I have no idea
why it solves the problem (temporarily), but there you go.

But of course this can not be / not feasible to be done by the users
everytime they start up the application, so I hope somebody can help us to
solve this problem.

I've made the SQL.LOG files (ODBC tracing output) available :

http://www.abangadek.com/tamu/ODBCLOG-unable-to-connect.txt
Recorded the failure of our internal MS Access application to connect to
the PostgreSQL server

http://www.abangadek.com/tamu/ODBCLOG-connected-after-creating-new-link-in-Access.txt
Recorded the table link creation process to the PostgreSQL server.
Afterwards, the MS Access application can access the PostgreSQL database
with no problem whatsoever.

We'd be grateful for any assistance anyone can give us regarding this.


Many thanks,
Harry


Re: Problem connecting from Windows 9x/Me

From
Richard Huxton
Date:
Harry Sufehmi wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Thank you for the ODBC driver, it has enabled us to access the
> PostgreSQL server from our Windows 2000 & XP machine.
> However, people on Windows 9x/Me machines are having problems.
>
> Basically, everytime they open the MS Access application, the
> application failed with the following error message:
> "ODBC -- connection to 'pgsql_sir' failed."
>
> There's a workaround for this - if we create a new table link to the
> PostgreSQL database, then afterwards everything works fine. I have no
> idea why it solves the problem (temporarily), but there you go.
>
> But of course this can not be / not feasible to be done by the users
> everytime they start up the application, so I hope somebody can help us
> to solve this problem.

Hmm - not seen this particular problem. I'd suspect a problem with
name-lookup though - I've seen that cause strange problems with Access
and linked tables/connections.

Might be worth trying:
  1. Connect using the IP address of the server, not it's name
  2. Add the server's IP and name to the HOSTS/LMHOSTS file(s)
There are details on step 2 on the web - just google.

--
   Richard Huxton
   Archonet Ltd

Re: Problem connecting from Windows 9x/Me

From
Harry Sufehmi
Date:
At 09:50 27/04/2005 +0100, Richard Huxton wrote:
>Harry Sufehmi wrote:
>>Hi,
>>Thank you for the ODBC driver, it has enabled us to access the PostgreSQL
>>server from our Windows 2000 & XP machine.
>>However, people on Windows 9x/Me machines are having problems.
>>Basically, everytime they open the MS Access application, the application
>>failed with the following error message:
>>"ODBC -- connection to 'pgsql_sir' failed."
>>There's a workaround for this - if we create a new table link to the
>>PostgreSQL database, then afterwards everything works fine. I have no
>>idea why it solves the problem (temporarily), but there you go.
>>But of course this can not be / not feasible to be done by the users
>>everytime they start up the application, so I hope somebody can help us
>>to solve this problem.
>
>Hmm - not seen this particular problem. I'd suspect a problem with
>name-lookup though - I've seen that cause strange problems with Access and
>linked tables/connections.
>Might be worth trying:
>  1. Connect using the IP address of the server, not it's name
>  2. Add the server's IP and name to the HOSTS/LMHOSTS file(s)
>There are details on step 2 on the web - just google.


Thanks for the reply Richard.
However, we already uses IP address to point to the server.

If you wish to look at the raw data, they've been made available here :

http://www.abangadek.com/tamu/ODBCLOG-unable-to-connect.txt

http://www.abangadek.com/tamu/ODBCLOG-connected-after-creating-new-link-in-Access.txt



Thanks,
Harry




Re: Problem connecting from Windows 9x/Me

From
Harry Sufehmi
Date:
Hi,

I've tried creating a table link in Access automatically (so my users won't
have to). Unfortunately, it still unable to connect.

I've done further investigation on the ODBC trace logs, and it seems the
difference is here:

Success:
======================================
sir             fffaa095-fff4e88d       ENTER SQLDriverConnectW
                 HDBC                07A70D54
                 HWND                000005F4
                 WCHAR *             0x1F7D8B70 [      -3] "******\ 0"
                 SWORD                       -3
                 WCHAR *             0x1F7D8B70
                 SWORD                        8
                 SWORD *             0x00000000
                 UWORD                        1 <SQL_DRIVER_COMPLETE>
sir             fffaa095-fff4e88d       EXIT  SQLDriverConnectW  with
return code 0 (SQL_SUCCESS)
======================================

Failed:
======================================
sir             fffaa095-fff4e88d       ENTER SQLDriverConnectW
                 HDBC                07A70080
                 HWND                000005F4
                 WCHAR *             0x1F7D8B70 [      -3] "******\ 0"
                 SWORD                       -3
                 WCHAR *             0x1F7D8B70
                 SWORD                        8
                 SWORD *             0x00000000
                 UWORD                        3 <SQL_DRIVER_COMPLETE_REQUIRED>
sir             fffaa095-fff4e88d       EXIT  SQLDriverConnectW  with
return code -1 (SQL_ERROR)
======================================

However, I noted that the connection from a Windows 2000 machine (which
never encounter this issue) uses SQL_DRIVER_COMPLETE_REQUIRED parameter as
well (and it connects just fine). So probably that's not the culprit.

A discussion I found mentioned about the ODBC driver using Unicode,
therefore causing problems on Windows9x/Me machines.
I wonder if that's the case here as well.

Those are my findings so far.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks,
Harry



At 14:37 27/04/2005 +0700, Harry Sufehmi wrote:
>Basically, everytime they open the MS Access application, the application
>failed with the following error message:
>"ODBC -- connection to 'pgsql_sir' failed."
>
>There's a workaround for this - if we create a new table link to the
>PostgreSQL database, then afterwards everything works fine. I have no idea
>why it solves the problem (temporarily), but there you go.
>
>But of course this can not be / not feasible to be done by the users
>everytime they start up the application, so I hope somebody can help us to
>solve this problem.
>
>I've made the SQL.LOG files (ODBC tracing output) available :
>
>http://www.abangadek.com/tamu/ODBCLOG-unable-to-connect.txt
>Recorded the failure of our internal MS Access application to connect to
>the PostgreSQL server
>
>http://www.abangadek.com/tamu/ODBCLOG-connected-after-creating-new-link-in-Access.txt
>Recorded the table link creation process to the PostgreSQL server.
>Afterwards, the MS Access application can access the PostgreSQL database
>with no problem whatsoever.
>
>We'd be grateful for any assistance anyone can give us regarding this.
>
>
>Many thanks,
>Harry