Error 6 means duplicate file names on servers

[QuinTech]

[DOUBLE-POST]

Someone had posted a question a while back (maybe a month or two?), asking what error 6 means when trying to access a file across a network. I can find no documentation for this error, and it seems to be an FM error rather than a Windows one, so i will pretend to be an error 6 authority. I think i have an answer, but i can't find the original post. So here goes (hope you're still on the forum, bud). I hope the pooh-bahs will forgive me for double-posting, but i'm not sure where this should go.

I have a local file that looks for a database on the network called "Opener.usr". Last night, running that file, i got an Error 6. When i open the Hosts dialog, i can see that we have TWO servers which are hosting a file called Opener.usr.

I believe what is happening is that, because FM does a multi-cast when looking for a file on the network, it gets confused at the presence of two identically-named files and returns an error.

Testing this theory out, i find that if i modify my opener script to specify the host IP, error 6 does not recur. QED.

So the solution for error 6 is to uniquely name every hosted file on your network, or to specify the host's IP in the opener script.

HTH someone.

Jerry

[Ken Newell]

Error 6 means you are trying to open a file up with an FM installation that uses the same FM install serial number. It does not apply to files with the same name as a server will not host files with the same name. This is not documentated in any place that I have seen. If someone is using the same serial number on the installation and tries to open a file on the same server you will get that error. I have seen this on both FMP and FMD v5 and 6. I don't know if the same error is returned when the files are not hosted on a server but peer to peer.

[QuinTech]

Hi, Ken, are you sure it's duplicate installation numbers? How, then, was i able to resolve the problem by specifying the host's IP?

I actually had two DIFFERENT servers running a file of the same name. There were most definitely two files named Opener.usr that FM could have chosen from with a multicast.

FWIW, the duplicate installation number problem cannot be ruled out, as i was using one installation code on two different machines at the time for testing (sorry, FM Inc!), but i'm just not sure that is the problem, given that i was able to resolve it by specifying the host. Is it possible that the first Opener.usr that FM found in its multicast was hosted by a machine with the same install code as mine, thus returning the error? If that is true, then specifying the host (which may have had a different installation code) could have left FM agnostic about other copies of the same installation code on the network.

I think your diagnosis would also help explain why there's no documentation--leave the sneaky little pirates in the dark about their errors.

J

[QuinTech]

And i probably could have been a bit more humble in my choice of post titles.

[Ken Newell]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I am very sure that it is the serial number issue. I think, what happens is the first time a client opens a file on a server it attempts to check for duplicate serial numbers. Try this as a test. Open your file on the first server no problem. Attempt to open the same file with the same name on the other server. My guess is it will open without a problem. Now try to open with your second client either one of the files with the same name. My bet is neither will open for you. Quit FM from the first client and try opening from the second client the file from both of the servers. My guess is both will open just fine. If that is true then I think you can safely say it is a serial number conflict and not a file name issue.

[Ano Nimus]

Whenever I have seen this error 6, it was always because there was an installcode/license key conflict. I'm not saying that I am certain there couldn't be other causes for this error 6, but an installation of a license key or install code that is already on the network (bar VLA codes, of course) will lead to error 6.