Linked Table Manager and IP Addressing

[MattFitzgerald]

As a company we have 2 sites and the same database is replicated at both sites

I link the tables from both these sites into my reporting database using linked tables.

The only problem I have is when I link some tables the link uses the mapping format Y:\ instead of the IP format \\192.239.14.115\.

Is there any way I can replace the Y:\ with the IP format in the Linked Table Manager as I can only use my reporting database on PC's where the correct IP Address is mapped to Y:

I'm hopping this will be easy I just can't see the soloution at the moment so if anyone knows it will be very helpful

[FishVal]

Hi, Matt.

To the best of my knowledge, there is a straight way to do this.
In link wizard, when FileOpen dialog popups, type a full path with IP to the mdb.
\\192.239.14.115\......\SomeDataBase.mdb

Regards,
Fish.

[NeoPa]

Although I would never recommend using bare IP addresses in an address, the UNC (Universal Naming Convention) of a share is perfectly usable within linked tables.

UNC:
\\ServerName\ShareName\Path\FileName

[MattFitzgerald]

Fishval

Thank you will try this method next time this happens.

I figured out that if I set up my linked table by browsing through My computer it uses the drive letter but if I browse through My Netwok Places it uses the IP Address.

[MattFitzgerald]

NeoPa

I do not know much about networks or naming conventions and the 2 files are not on servers we have peer to peer networking in both our offices with a VPN connection between LANS.

As they are not on servers should I use the PCName instead of ServerName and do you think the PCName will resolve back to the correct IPaddress at the other end of the VPN as is this not the job of a DNS server and we don't have one of these.

I'm a little out of my depth as I am using terms which I know very little about so please forgive any wrong understanding on my behalf.

Also I don't know if it makes a difference but i'm not using a public IP address it is a static ip address allocated to a pc within our network?

[NeoPa]

Matt, I read through to the end and worked out where the periods (full-stops) should be ;)

You're talking along the right lines almost, but not quite. For UNC resolution you're using NetBIOS naming rather than DNS naming (although both resolve IP addresses to names). This is good news for you as this will mean that the PCName will almost certainly work for you (It does depend on network setup but I can't think of a situation where it wouldn't work).

ServerName refers to the PC serving the share - This is not necessarily a server, nor even one running a server version of Windows. You should be in luck there. Try it out and let us know how you get on.

[MattFitzgerald]

I just tried ping -a then the IP address to find out the pc name, this did not work any ideas why? In the mean time I will get the pcname by telephone.

[NeoPa]

The -a option (reverse lookup) will tend to work less reliably than the simple lookup option.

On my network I have DNS servers set up such that they return the name of a locally handled IP address. This is in my DNS system though. I don't recall how well (if at all) this works within NetBIOS/WINS systems. A remote system would be even less likely to resolve correctly.

PS. Make sure you test that the Ping of the given name does work (or at least a TraceRt if Ping responses are disabled on that PC (Firewall)).