selfcheck request failed: timeout waiting for ACK

I may have spent a couple days screaming at the computer trying to figure out why i was getting the error message below:

“selfcheck request failed: timeout waiting for ACK“.

I finally realized that it was a DNS issue. The backup server and the client server had different NETMASK ip addresses.

My Backup Server had a netmask of  255.255.0.0 while the client server has a netmask of  255.0.0.0

So i decided to throw this post out there so hopefully it will help someone save you some frustrations.

Here are the steps to fix this issue:
1.  Make sure that you can ping the client server from the backup server
2.  Make sure that you can ping the backup server from the client server
3.  Make sure that you do an "ifconfig" on both machine to make sure that they have the same NETMASK
4.  Do not forget to do a "service network restart"  after making the changes (centos or redhat family)

Launch Microsoft Access From C# Using Automation

First I am assuming that all you need to do is open an Access document from your C# application.  When you click a button or initiate a new event, you want to open an Access database in “Microsoft Access”.

Microsoft provides the following article but it is not complete http://support.microsoft.com/kb/317114.

Here are my steps after a lot of Googlings and swearings

1. First you have you have to add a reference to the Microsoft Access Objects

2. Second  you have to use the right namespace
using Access = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Access; 

3. Just modify the code below to fit your needs

        private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            Access.Application oAccess = null;
            // Start a new instance of Access for Automation:
            oAccess = new Access.Application();

            // Open a database in exclusive mode:
            oAccess.OpenCurrentDatabase(@"c:\ycsoftware.mdb", true);
            oAccess.Visible = true;
        }

References
http://msdn.itags.org/visual-studio/8190/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/317114

ScreenCapture DropDown Menus, Listbox and Others

Well this one got me for a while. The best that i could do was an “ALT Prnt Scrn” then i had to copy the image to paint then crop it. The secret to capture drow downs, menus and others is to use shorcut keys intead of the mouse.  Also when choosing a shortcut key make sure you choose one that does not interfere with the ones that other programs and the operating system uses.

I use a free program called “clip2net”  you can download it at (http://download.cnet.com/Clip2Net/3000-2196_4-10741074.html). Once downloaded just go to the settings of this program and set up your shortcut key.  I am also pretty sure that you can do the same with your own screen capture software if not you deserve to try another screen capture software.

Now whenever you have to take a screenshot of a dropdown menu like the one below just hit your “shortcut key” in this case “win + F2”

Change Default Picture Viewer Program Windows 7

Somehow my default picture viewer has been changed to “GIMP”. Now when I try to open any simple picture it takes forever.  To change the default program for viewing pictures please follow these intructions:

1. Right click on the image file that you are trying to open and click on “open with” ,  select “default program” then set your default program.

2. Go to Control Panel type default program in the search box on top, then find the your program and set it as default