We us an external database to: We are an ISP and have 1650 clients. Guess how many calls we get a day for lost passwords..... Don't ask.
We added an account number field into the email database that allows us to pull up all the email accounts that a customer has and very quickly provide them their email passwords. We are already tracking their address, and cable modem, so linking the database to automatically pull up email addresses was just a bonus. This way, we can also have multiple people getting and providing the passwords without the need for them to have write access to the data. We didn't notice the user unknown problem until we reached 500 users. Must have gotten lucky. Trent ----------- Trent M. Davenport - Systems Administrator Northern Television Systems Ltd - WHTV 203-4103 4th Avenue, Whitehorse, YT Y1A 1H6 (867) 393-2225 X204, (867) 393-2224 FAX www.whtvcable.com <http://www.whtvcable.com> ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ) -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Norman J. Nolasco Sent: April 15, 2002 11:13 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] External Database - Beware of Access DB He's right. Sorry, forgot to mention that. It's an MS Access thing. He was being pretty generous too. We had an application built on an Access database (Access 97) that could pretty much handle about 20 people before it got too slow to be useful. I'd hate to think what would have happened if it served 500 people... or even 50! It just can't handle that many requests that quickly (especially over ODBC). We're running on MS SQL2K with about 150 users with no problems... yet. Is there any reason you can't use IMail's Database? It's supposed to be able to handle thousands of users with no problem. We only have about 50 using the IMail Database. Not to sound hypocritical, but if you don't have a REALLY good reason to use the External Database, you shouldn't. -Norm -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Rick Leske Sent: Monday, April 15, 2002 12:57 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] External Database - Beware of Access DB interesting.. is this problem, bug known to ipswitch and or is it a M$ Access limitation? Could the limit be based upon the platform you are running it under, ie: NT or W2K? Please let me know.. hate to waste 'more' time trying to implement a 20 min email solution.. rick -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Trent M. Davenport Sent: Monday, April 15, 2002 11:27 AM - MGMT.TV To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] External Database - Beware of Access DB One caution about using MS Access. Once you get to 500 or more users, MS Access doesn't respond fast enough to the mail server requests, even if the database resides locally, and mail starts getting bounced user unknown. After converting to MYSQL and then to Sybase SQL Anywhere, have not had any further problems. Trent ----------- Trent M. Davenport - Systems Administrator Northern Television Systems Ltd - WHTV 203-4103 4th Avenue, Whitehorse, YT Y1A 1H6 (867) 393-2225 X204, (867) 393-2224 FAX www.whtvcable.com <http://www.whtvcable.com> ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ) -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Rick Leske Sent: April 12, 2002 10:34 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] External Database Norman, you are tops!... thanks a lot ~ I have ms access and i'll give it a spin. I'm guessing here but I think I need to add all the default tables that align with the imail provided odbcuser.dll. thanks norman & the best to you and yours, Rick Norman J. Nolasco wrote: > Sorry, I think I know where you're at now. First of all, the "External > User Database" is for those who want to use Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft > Access, Oracle, or some other third party database software for their users. > This software must be purchased separately from their respective > manufacturers > and has nothing to do with IPSwitch or IMail. > > If you don't want to spend the additional couple of thousand dollars on > licenses for an enterprise database like Oracle or MS SQL Server, a > Microsoft > Access database will work just fine. A copy of MS Access is about $100 > and can be found at most computer stores. > > If you don't have another database product or don't want to deal with the > problems associated with relational databases, IMail provides its own > storage > for user accounts, the "IMail Database" setting. With this setting, instead > of storing the user account information in an "external database", the data > is stored in your registry. Using the "IMail Database" setting is the > easiest > and (I've heard) the most efficient way to use IMail. > > For those that need to perform "joins" or complex database operations on > their > user accounts, the "External Database" setting is one way to go. You can > refer > to my previous email, but I'll sum up the steps here. They might make more > sense now. > > For the External Database > 1. Install database software/server (ie. MS SQL Server, MS Access, Oracle, > ...) > 2. Setup a new database within the database software/server. > 3. Create a DSN: > Windows 2000: Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Data Sources > Windows NT: Start -> Control Panel -> ODBC > Name it IMAILSECDB if you want to match IMail's default settings. > 4. Add a new Host in IMail > 5. Select "External Database" and click "Configure". Now you can use the > default settings that you mentioned. > 6. When you've finished the Add Host procedure, a new table should be in > your > database under Access or whatever database program you're using. > > >>Here's my wall; how do i add a user to the table? via asp? if so i >> > > - You can use the IMail Administrator, the IMail Web Messaging client, or > your > own ASP pages. The changes you make will be reflected in the database > tables > in your database program. > - You can use ASP, but you've better be pretty good at ADO or something > similar. > > >>can't seem to access the DSN IMAILSECDB.. i've searched the hd and >>cannot find it anywhere. >> > > You're not going to find it anywhere. You have to set it up manually. See > Step 3 above. It's not going to be a file you can easily read. I'm not > even sure if it is a file per se. The default setting in IMail doesn't > create a DSN... it just suggests the name for a DSN... and the default is > just an example that should work for MS Access. > > >>should i just make an access DSN and point to it? >> > > Yes. > > >>very basic. i've tried to use the 'add new user' function/button within >>the imail administrator but i believe that's only for imails user >> > > If you have everything set up right, it will make changes to the external > database. IMail user account storage (as far as I know) for each host is > either one or the other, not both. You either use the IMail Database, the > NT SAM, or an external database. You CAN use different storage types for > different hosts within the same IMail server. > > >>Any suggestion good/bad will be greatly appreciated. >> > > I hope this helps. If you need more assistance, you can email me off list > directly and I'll get some screenshots to you. It's hard to explain over > plain text email. > > -Norm > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Rick Leske > Sent: Friday, April 12, 2002 9:39 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] External Database > > > Norman, > > I thank you for a very informative 'how to' and by golly I think my > youngs son could handle that. Me? well old dog.. hard headed I guess.. > what i'm trying to do is to use the default settings within imail for an > external database. I have selected to use the External User Database > (does imail make this?) Then I've let imail put in the default DSN of > IMAILSECDB and lastly its' default table name of [default] which i > understand will make a table called something like mailme_com. > > Here's my wall; how do i add a user to the table? via asp? if so i > can't seem to access the DSN IMAILSECDB.. i've searched the hd and > cannot find it anywhere. > > should i just make an access DSN and point to it? I am truely sorry if > this sounds like a mess but to me i'm sure i'm overlooking something > very basic. i've tried to use the 'add new user' function/button within > the imail administrator but i believe that's only for imails user > database. > > Any suggestion good/bad will be greatly appreciated. > > thanks in advance, > > rick > > > Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html > to be removed from this list. > > An Archive of this list is available at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ > > Please visit the Knowledge Base for answers to frequently asked > questions: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ > > > > Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html to be removed from this list. An Archive of this list is available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Please visit the Knowledge Base for answers to frequently asked questions: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html to be removed from this list. An Archive of this list is available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Please visit the Knowledge Base for answers to frequently asked questions: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html to be removed from this list. An Archive of this list is available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Please visit the Knowledge Base for answers to frequently asked questions: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html to be removed from this list. An Archive of this list is available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Please visit the Knowledge Base for answers to frequently asked questions: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html to be removed from this list. An Archive of this list is available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Please visit the Knowledge Base for answers to frequently asked questions: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/
