Unable to retrieve tables over Mac to PC databaseconnection

[Eddy Miller]

I hope someone can help with this. I've now spent 13 days wrestling with
various issues arising from trying to establish a working database connection
over a Mac/PC network.

To test a database connection in principle, before going ahead with a web
registration project, I am trying to set up a Dreamweaver tutorial site with
Dreamweaver loaded on a Mac running OS X Panther and an Access database on a
Windows XP Pro machine.

So far everything is working up to the point of trying to insert a recordset,
when Dreamweaver gives the error message "Unable to retrieve tables from this
connection".

There is a remote folder in the Inetpub folder of the PC, within which I have
the database just for testing purposes, and this is mounted successfully on the
Mac using SMB. I have verified IIS on the PC by serving a page with dynamic
content - using <p>This page was created at <b> <%= Time %> </b> on the
computer running ASP.</p> - in Safari from a file in the remote folder.

If I create a DSN connection in Dreamweaver, it recognises the DSN's from the
ODBC Administrator (if I change their names on the PC, they change in
Dreamweaver) and gives the message "Connection was made successfully" when I
choose the appropriate one. If I use a DSN-less connection string - using
"Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)}; DBQ=" &
Server.MapPath("/TRIO/trio.mdb") - it gives the same message. However, with
either connection method when I try to insert a recordset it first states
?Loading database schema? and then returns the same error message of being
unable to retrieve tables.

Having explored every avenue I could think of for a fortnight, I decided to
install Dreamweaver on the PC as a trial version and set up the same site.
Using exactly the same DSN, it established a connection and a recordset
immediately, so I am confident that the web and application servers and
database driver are functioning. The DSN-less connection string also worked.

I've also tried an OLE DB connection string
(?Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; DBQ=" & Server.MapPath("/TRIO/trio.mdb")),
but on both the Mac and PC it returned the error message "Could not find an
installable ISAM". I haven't fully grasped how installable ISAM's work, but
from my research I think it should be looking for the msjet40.dll database
engine. This exists on the System32 folder on the PC, but I couldn't find a
path to it in the Windows Registry where I thought there should be one. I got
the impression though that the error message is a bit of a catch-all and might
not necessarily mean what it says. By now I doubt that using an OLE DB database
engine would resolve the problem anyway.

In getting to the point of successfully networking the remote folder, serving
a dynamic page and previewing a page from there in the browser on the Mac, I
had to reconfigure the firewalls on the PC and the Mac and resolve some issues
with Permissions on the PC. I have checked Permissions for the web server in
the IIS snap-in and given the IUSR user account Full Control in both the
Sharing and Security tabs of the remote folder and database Properties. In fact
I've tried turning off the firewalls completely and giving Full Control to
every user to no avail.

I've noticed that the Mac is connecting to shared folders over SMB on the
Guest user account (which is turned on). I'd thought that the purpose of the
SMB/CIFS Filesystem Authentication dialogue box on the Mac when connecting to
Windows was to specify a user account and password on the PC, but I seem to be
connecting with the Mac's Username and Password, so that's something I don't
quite understand. Anyway, I'd wondered if the problem is related to the
Permissions that the Guest user account has. I've given that Full Control too.
I even tried adding it to the Administrators user group in MMC.

The only thing I can think of is that for some reason the Mac is not getting
full access to the ODBC driver, but, since System DSN's are supposed to be
available to all system users, that makes no sense to me. I?ve just found a
reference in Macromedia support that says the error message is specific to an
OLE DB connection to a SQL Server database and the workaround is to use an ODBC
connection instead. No help at all! If anyone can provide the solution, I'm
willing to set up a small shrine to you.

[Eddy Miller]

I'm going to set up a small shrine to myself - I deserve it after finally
resolving it after 13 very long days until the early hours trying.

Shortly after posting this, as luck would have it, I found a Macromedia
technote called "Dreamweaver and Windows XP Service Pack 2", which should be
posted as a large health warning on all copies of Dreamweaver. It turns out it
is a known issue with the two applications. The resolution is to delete any
mmServerScripts on a site, download and install an extension that fixes the
problem and then delete and recreate the database connection.

And there it is. Simple.