FAQ 101: How do I share a database on my network? (COv5)

[Support]

*** This FAQ applies ONLY to the Professional edition of ClinicOffice v5 ***

If you have a number of computers networked together then you can share your ClinicOffice database over your network. This FAQ will explain how to do this :-

[1] Nominate a Server Computer

Firstly, you need to decide which one of your computers will actually store the database. This computer is referred to as your 'server' computer.

How do I decide which computer should be my server?
If you already have a dedicated server computer, then it's best to use that one.

If you don't have a dedicated server computer, then you could simply choose whichever is your most powerful computer (usually the newest one), as it will be able to 'serve' the database faster.

Another consideration is that ClinicOffice will actually perform faster when used on your 'server' computer. This is because the database is actually stored on that computer, so data is accessed directly rather than going over your network. For this reason, many clinics choose to nominate their reception computer as their server, because it is important for the receptionists to have fast access to ClinicOffice (seeing as they do the bulk of the work anyway ).

[2] Connecting to the Database from your other Computers

Now you simply need to tell the other computers on your network about the database which is on your server. From each the other computers, please do the following :-

1) Run ClinicOffice
2) From the Logon screen, click the "Manage Databases" link under the "Select which database to logon to" box
3) Click the "Add Database" button
4) Select "A Network Computer"
5) Enter the name of your "server" computer - i.e. the name of the computer which is hosting your database (e.g. "SERVER" or "RECEPTION-PC" etc.) and click OK
6) Now select the database that you want to connect to and click OK

You should now be able to logon to your networked database as usual with your username and password. Please remember that you need to repeat the above process for all of your networked computers.

If you need any further assistance, please feel free to post your questions here or if you have joined the ClinicOffice Support Plan then please feel free to give us a call so that we can help you out!

[eniola231]

Hello Team Clinic office,
I just procured an additional license but have been finding it difficult to initiate the network operation, every attempt returns with the message "unable to connect with host" what do I do?
I

[Mat Larkin]

Hi Eniola321,

Thanks for your post. It could be a number of things preventing access to the database over the network, most likely a firewall (either on the main computer or the additional computer) or your Anti-Virus software.

You can try a ping test to see if the computers are able to communicate with one another.

To do this, press the WINDOWS KEY + R (to show the Windows RUN box) and type "cmd" and press ENTER. A command prompt window will now appears.

Type "ping computername" (without the quotes) where "computername" is the name of the other computer.

You will either see that the computer gets a reply which is good, or it may say "could not find host" or the request "timed out", which is bad as it means the two computers are not able to communicate, in which case it is either network problem, or something blocking the network connection.

Please let us know how you get on and if you need anything else, please reply to this post.

Many thanks!

[eniola231]

The message I got was: ping request could not find host DIRECTOR

N.B: DIRECTOR is my computer name

[Support]

OK - so this means that either :-

[1] your two computers are not connected to the same physical local area network (LAN)
[2] there is something wrong with your LAN
[3] a firewall / anti-virus program is blocking the connection

Once the network problem is solved and the two computers can communicate, ClinicOffice will work fine.