[ale] question about SAMBA and a windows program called ACT

[Jonathan Glass]

On Fri, 2004-09-03 at 08:51, Geoffrey wrote:
> Van Loggins wrote:
> > I have a company who is needing a "server" for their network
> > to host the ACT contact database program.
> > 
> > Do you think that the ACT software work ok if it is executed
> > and run from a SAMBA file share as opposed to running it off
> > of a Windows 2000 or NT 4.0 server. it is a 5 user copy and
> > will have 5 people using the software at the same time. If
> > it was only going to be 1 or 2 users I would just have them
> > run it from a windows file share on one of their PCs.
> 
> I don't know anything about ACT, but I know of a company that does this 
> with Access.  The Access data resides on the Samba server and the 
> clients access it via share.  It works, but as most folks will tell you 
> Access is a poor choice for such a solution.
> 
> > 
> > This company is on a very tight budget and really can't afford to pay
> > me for my time to set up this "server" plus the costs of
> > Windows server software. If I can save the day by using Linux, I am
> > confident that they will see the benefits of using Linux
> > instead of Windows on their systems.
> 
> All I can say is you will likely have to test it out to see if it works. 
>   Have you googled this?
> 
> > 
> > Their workstations are running Windows XP Home edition (yuckie!!!)  if this makes any difference.
> > thanks for any thoughts or information you can give me about
> > this subject.
> 
> The company I noted above is running XP pro and some ME machines.  I 
> doubt XP home will be a problem, if it works in they same way as the 
> Access solution.

The biggest problem you'll have is with XP Home's 5-server connection
limitation.  Once you connect to 5 distinct connections, XP Home will
not connect to any more servers.

Jonathan