Issues with VB.Net over small office network

[robertpien]

Here is the scenario:

 

Small office network - 3 PC's - 2 workgroups. 2 PC's using Windows 98 are in 1 workgroup and the main PC using Windows XP is in a second workgroup. I am attempting to run a VB.Net application amongst the 3 PC's, but it will be housed on the XP Machine. On the XP machine, all is fine running it from the "network" drive. On the other PC's, I receive an error - Object is not set to another instance when it attempts to access the DB..... I have not modified the .Net Config permissions on the 98 machines. Any thoughts on what I need to do to make the application run properly on the WIndows 98 PC's?

 

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

[bpayne111]

please post more information about your issue. Have you stepped through the code to see which object is crashin the app? a little code always helps too.

 

just out of curiosity why are you using 2 workgroups for just 3 machines? My guess is you are on a different workgroup at home maybe?

 

--brandon

[coder4hire]

Here is the scenario:

 

Small office network - 3 PC's - 2 workgroups. 2 PC's using Windows 98 are in 1 workgroup and the main PC using Windows XP is in a second workgroup. I am attempting to run a VB.Net application amongst the 3 PC's, but it will be housed on the XP Machine. On the XP machine, all is fine running it from the "network" drive. On the other PC's, I receive an error - Object is not set to another instance when it attempts to access the DB..... I have not modified the .Net Config permissions on the 98 machines. Any thoughts on what I need to do to make the application run properly on the WIndows 98 PC's?

 

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

 

Your problem is that you are running two different workgroups. Your Win98 PCs and your WinXP PC cannot "see" each other. Try putting all PCs in the same workgroup. That should fix your problem.

 

--coder

[bpayne111]

now i'm confused...

 

I thought different workgroups were only bad practice if you were trying to 'view workgruop computers' and even then you could use //servername/sharename.

Am i missing something from the big picture here?

[coder4hire]

now i'm confused...

 

I thought different workgroups were only bad practice if you were trying to 'view workgruop computers' and even then you could use //servername/sharename.

Am i missing something from the big picture here?

 

Okay, I have run into problems like this before when trying to browse workgroup computers. You could be right about using UNC to pass the server and path name. After re-reading your original post (should have paid better attention the first time LOL), it appears that you may have created an object reference in your code and then not set that reference to an instance of that object. An example of doing this (in C#) might be as follows:

 

SqlCommand myCommand;

 

That is an example of creating a reference to an object but not instantiating (creating an instance of) it. In C# there are 2 ways to instantiate an object. You can do so when you first reference it, like so:

 

SqlCommand myCommand = new SqlCommand(someCommandString);
//This creates a reference to the object SqlCommand and instantiates it

 

Or, as follows:

 

SqlCommand myCommand;  //This creates the object reference only
myCommand = new SqlCommand(someCommandString);  //This actually instantiates the object referrence

 

As bpayne111 stated, without looking at your code it is difficult to say what might be causing the problem. Try setting break points in your code and then Stepping Into it (F11, I believe??) one line at a time to find out where the exception occurs. This should give you a good idea of what is causing the problem and where to fix it.

 

Sorry for the previous confusion. Don't know what I was thinking. LOL.

 

--coder