Problems sharing Outlook 2003 Business Contact Manager database

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

We run Outlook 2003 on a MS Small Business Server 2003 network and despite
all efforts, we have not been able to share a Business Contact Manager
database with other Outlook 2003 users on the network.

While BCM runs perfectly well on my XP Pro client, whenever we try to run
the BCM wizard on other clients we get a "database is not accessible message
- please check network/ firewall/ etc..." message.

Can anyone help please.

John Blackwell
 
Can you connect to the database from the other clients, without using
BCM?

If the database was shared without any errors, there's probably
something blocking the other clients. Do you have a firewall installed
on that PC?
 
Hi Luther,

I can certainly 'see' the BCM database from other laptop clients, albeit
I've not tried to open the file.

Whenever I try to connect to a BCM database from another client, I get the
message "cannot access the database...".

Any ideas?
 
Since you mention seeing the db file, I assume you mean you can
navigate to the host computer and into the folder with the database
files.

That would be using different network connections from acessing the
database from a sql client (what bcm uses).

On the db host, open Control Panel|Windows Firewall|Exceptions.

There should be an entry for something like "Small Business", and the
Scope should be "Any computer". Technically scope of "My network
(subnet)" will work in most cases, but it does depend on how your
network is configured; i.e. are all machines on the same ip subnet.

If it's not there, try opening TCP port 56183.

If you have a third party firewall you'll need to do the same thing on
that firewall.
 
Hi Luther,

Frustratingly, I had already checked the firewall (everything we run is
vanilla Microsoft - Small Business Server 2003, XP Pro SP2 clients, Windows
Firewall, Office/ Outlook 2003, etc, etc) and had manually created the TCP
port 56183/ scope = Any Computer settings.

We still can't access the BCM database on my laptop from any of our other
laptops.
 
You can try connecting directly to the database without BCM. That will
tell you if its a sql connectivity issue, or the problem is particular
to BCM itself.

Installing MSDE installs a utilility called OSQL, that uses ODBC
connections to database (BCM also uses ODBC).

To connect to the bcm database from a client machine use this command
line:

OSQL -E -S 1.2.3.4\microsoftsmlbiz,56183 -d msbusinesscontactmanager

1.2.3.4 is the ip address of the host machine. You can get the host's
ip address by typing ipconfig on a command line. The sql instance and
database names are the defaults for V2. Change those if yours are
different. You will either get am OSQL prompt (which you can use to
query the bcm database, e.g.:
SELECT * FROM OrgTable
GO
EXIT)
or you'll get a connection failure.

If OSQL fails, then BCM clients will also have the same problem
accessing the database.

If that works, try substituting the bcm db host's name for the ip
address (which is what BCM uses), and try again.
 
Hi Luther,

Sorry for the gap in responding - I've been travelling on business.

Unfortunately, the BCM database still won't connect. I can 'see' the master
database on my laptop from all the other laptops.

I tried using the command line entry "OSQL -E -S
1.2.3.4\microsoftsmlbiz,56183 -d msbusinesscontactmanager" and this return a
message stating;

(DBNETLIB)SQL SERVER does not exist or access denied
(DBNETLIB)ConnectionOpen <Connect<>>

Does this shed any light on this problem?
 
What application are you using to 'see' the master db from the other
laptops?

Are you talking about seeing the database file in a shared folder, or
about being able to browse through the databases on the sql server
(microsoftsmlbiz) on the master laptop from the other laptops?

Earlier this week someone kindly posted Microsoft Product Support's
document on debugging database problems. It was fairly extensive and
detailed about how to diagnose and correct problems.
 
Hi Luther,

Good point - all I did was to check whether I could access the master BCM
file across our network. I wanted to ensure there were no firewall issues.

I've tried using the SQL Service Manager to 'browse' other databases but
this doesn't seem to work. On the master (my) laptop, I have the SQL Server
set to <my name>\MICROSOFTSMLBIZ however I can't use SQL Server Manager on
other laptops to see this database.
 
Luther,

Do you have details of the document posted on MS's Product Support re.
debugging database issues.

I'm really eager to get these issues fixed soonest.
 
Back
Top