Currently we have an old application that was written with VB 6. The application accesses SQL server and network share over a local network.
The management wants to make it work over the internet (i.e. someone can install the application locally on their own computer, but still somehow connects to a database/network share that we host. Of course, they want minimal change to the current application.
Exactly what you can do there? I know you can access SQL server over the internet, but is it secure if you use SSL encryption? Also what would be the easiest solution to access a network share?
Thanks
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I have try to remote access from one computer to another within LAN connection. However, thru these days research a lot of the article said I need to do port forwarding. But I think in my country ISP has block this setting, I can even find the option in my router webpage.
Is there any other way to remotely access the ms sql server thru internet?
This is networking protocol. But you can do it using Remote Desktop Connection locally as long as you have an access to that particular Server.
Check the Firewall also to your server.
Another option is, you can access it remotely using TEAM VIEWER
The basic question is this, if our Windows service uses Windows Authentication for connections to SQL Server, and then because of a network disconnect, SQL server and/or the client machine cannot reach AD to authorize or authenticate, will our service still be able to connect to SQL Server and operate?
I’ve tried it and it seems to work, but we are concerned if it will work even after a few days of being disconnected or after server reboots and the like.
The alternative would be to use SQL Server Authentication, but we would rather not have to deal with potentially exposing and having to protect the password on the client computer. This computer may be in a remote location with little supervision. SQL Server would typically be running on this same remote computer.
And for the follow up questions, does it matter which edition of SQL Server we use? Does it matter that both SQL Server and the service are running on the same computer?
If AD connection is lost, existing SQL connections will keep working (at least for some time), and connection pools will be still available (again, for some time). However, I wouldn't get too comfortable with this, because these time spans might depend on settings outside of a typical DBA' reach.
Alternatives are:
Use an AD proxy. Depends on circumstances, might not be always viable;
Use local user accounts instead of AD. Works always.
There are dozens of questions like this but none of them resolve this issue.
I have created WinForm application using entityFramework modelFirst approach. I have deployed it using InstallShield and it works perfectly fine.
I have been using VisualStudio server explorer for all database related work, not SQL server Management studio.
Questions
What I simply want is how can I make its database centralised
through out the LAN network?
One computer will act as server and
will contain that application too, others will just have application
and use database from server. Do I have to make two builds? or what
do I do?
In-case of change in IP address of server of location of
database at server? Shall it require new deployment or just some
changes in connection string?
Shall it require some changes in code
as well to handle exceptions in case of server no-response or
anything?
Kindly elabore with steps and process, whatever you are suggesting as I am very new to this.
The general way to do this is to have a ConnectionString that points to the machine running the server. The machine name is used, not the IP address.
How can I deploy Access applications to multiple companies, with linked tables to SQL Azure servers?
I'm planning to deploy the Access programs with Microsoft Access runtime, and I'm assuming that I'll need to include the odbc drivers as well? Is there a way to automatically have Azure create a new server when a company signs into my website and downloads a program, and have the Access program link to it? And is there a way to get around the IP address settings in Azure as well? Because companies will be using the programs on multiple PCs. Or is it possible to utilise that and charge per PC?
If you distribute the application pre-linked, then the user should not have to do anything to consume the data.
When using Access with SQL server you can in general use the standard windows built in SQL driver. However in the case of Azure you do need to download + install the native 11 drivers (so I recommend you use that driver during development and setup).
You can also have code include to re-link to the sql server, but as noted, if your application is “already” linked, then you really don’t have to do anything on application startup. Such re-linking would not be required every time the application starts, but only a “one time” re-link is required say if you’re going to change the database, or perhaps the user logon. How to re-link (DSN less) is outlined here:
http://www.accessmvp.com/DJSteele/DSNLessLinks.html
As noted, you really don’t need the above.
As for IP restrictions, in the Azure setup you can turn off such restrictions if you need a connection that will occur from any location, but that does open up a security hole. (when you first create the SQL database you will be prompted for firewall rules).
All of the above assumes you been developing that Access application with SQL server as the back end (you can even use the free edition of SQL express for development on your local machine).
Last but not least:
Because your connection is occurring OVER the internet, then you speed will be MANY times slower then using a local server. Read the following article to get a “grasp” of this speed difference:
http://www.kallal.ca//Wan/Wans.html
So MUCH additional work is required in Access to obtain good performance when your connection is OVER the internet as opposed to SQL server running on your local network.
I want to access SQL server via an application (it is a desktop application) which is installed on remote location, where as SQL server installed in Main Office, where other applications are also accessing same SQL server on LAN.
Is it possible to do it?
Yes, technically this is not problem. Once installed, SQL Server will react both on the internal IP and external - if the Firewall is configured to forward SQL-Server Traffic (TCP 1433).
BUT - from security point it's not a good idea to expose your SQL Server directly to the internet. In the past there have been several security problems that would have exposed more than you wanted to expose. I would suggest external users, not inside your LAN use a VPN Connection to get inside your internal Network. I work every day over VPN with SQL Server and it's stable and secure.