connection string error message on Windows XP

[willaycoo]

oh god, I think I'm losing it. I've been at this for a few days, and I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong, so here I am..

After spending a few weeks configuring Samba on my Win7 laptop, I thought I'd go ahead and see if I could get it to network with my old Windows XP desktop.

The first time I downloaded Samba on the desktop, it worked great. Then I tried changing the connection string in an attempt to have it communicate with sql on the laptop, and now I can't get rid of the error message (The provider did not return a ProviderManifestToken string). I've tried uninstalling Samba, redownloading it, reinstalling it, changing the connection string..etc. Nothing seems to be working.

What am I doing wrong?

I'm not sure if I've provided enough information, and I've searched the boards, so please let me know if it looks like I've missed something. I'm not very tech-oriented.

And of course, thank you a billion times over for providing such an AMAZING resource for restaurant owners. I'm extremely glad that I held out and did my research long enough to stumble across Samba.

[emre]

Hello. Did you checked documentation?
http://doc.sambapos.org/doku.php/en/dbase/samba

[willaycoo]

Hi! Yes, I have. I've been really thorough about reading the forum. I'm just very confused as to why the error message didn't go away after the uninstall, since samba worked fine the very first time. Could this be a registry issue..? Should I try to restore the computer back to its original settings and see if that will do it? Perhaps I didn't uninstall it correctly?

At the moment, I'm planning on carefully re-installing everything (i.e. SQL express, samba) on the win 7 laptop server, and then seeing if changing the connection string on the XP desktop will do any good. I can't tell if the problem is a networking one, or if I did something wrong on the laptop.

[JohnS]

What is the connection string you used?
Is SQL Browser running?
Is the firewall turned off on both computers?

[willaycoo]

Hey JohnS,

1. For the connection string, I tried "data source = [servername]\[instance name]; User Id=sa; Password=[password]" and just "data source = [servername]\[instance name]." I just tried installing/repairing sql server compact on the XP desktop to see if training mode would even work, and now the Error Message is:

The path is not valid. Check the directory for the database. [ Path = C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Ozgu Tech\SambaPOS2\SambaTrain.sdf \

2. I thought that maybe I had NOT checked to make sql browser automatic during the install on the laptop, so I uninstalled sql (server 2008 r2 express) and then followed your instructions in another thread...and now when I try to start Samba, I get this Error Message:

Cannot create file "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.SQLEXPRESS\MSSQL\DATA\SambaData2.mdf" because it already exists. Change the file path or the file name, and retry the operation.
CREATE DATABASE failed. Some file names listed could not be created. Check related errors.

data source=[Servername]\[Instance name].


3. You may be right about the firewall...unfortunately it looks like I screwed everything up even more. I can't start samba anymore. Sigh.


Thanks for the quick response. I'm going to head off to bed and play around more tomorrow.

[JohnS]

Move the 2 SambaData files in the SQL Express program files location, and try again. Then copy them back. I think they are SambaData.mdf & .log

That should fix SQL Express locally.

[willaycoo]

Nice, that worked perfectly on the laptop.

I've given up on the networking until I can get someone in who understands it better than me. Now I'm just trying to get sql express to work on the desktop.

Regarding the XP desktop...
Right now, training mode works fine with Compact. However with Express, I still get the connection string issue. I tried to do the same thing (moving the files you mentioned), but those files don't exist in the folder.

[willaycoo]

Hey, I pulled my brother in, and he got it to work!!

He referenced this: http://forum2.sambapos.org/index.php?topic=74.0 and http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/2495/identify-sql-server-tcp-ip-port-being-used/