Networking other PC's to PowerChurch Computer

[swm]

I have the main powerchurch program on a particular computer (the bookkeeping computer). I want to network 3 of our other computers to the bookkeeping computer so they can work at their own computer station to make address changes etc. I have gone to the individual computers and have run netsetup11 from the C drive of the bookkeeping computer on each one.....all went well and I was able to then work from a different computer to make changes on the actual bookkeeping computer powerchurch program. But.....after a while I get a white screen that says something like "The path "Bookkeeping-pc\Power Church 11\ PCPlus 11" does not exist." Why is that???? It worked fine yesterday and then today I get the white screen with this message??? I don't understand. The bookkeeping computer is always on.....so there should not be a problem there. Is there another way that I should be networking these computers to the main computer or ???

I am NOT using the server as the place where the main powerchurch program is located. I am using a computer for the main place where the powerchurch program is located. This is how I want to do this for now. Just so you understand.

HELP.

Thanks

[NeilZ]

I have the main powerchurch program on a particular computer (the bookkeeping computer). I want to network 3 of our other computers to the bookkeeping computer so they can work at their own computer station to make address changes etc. I have gone to the individual computers and have run netsetup11 from the C drive of the bookkeeping computer on each one.....all went well and I was able to then work from a different computer to make changes on the actual bookkeeping computer powerchurch program. But.....after a while I get a white screen that says something like "The path "Bookkeeping-pc\Power Church 11\ PCPlus 11" does not exist." Why is that???? It worked fine yesterday and then today I get the white screen with this message??? I don't understand. The bookkeeping computer is always on.....so there should not be a problem there. Is there another way that I should be networking these computers to the main computer or ???

I am NOT using the server as the place where the main powerchurch program is located. I am using a computer for the main place where the powerchurch program is located. This is how I want to do this for now. Just so you understand.

HELP.

Thanks

It looks like you didn't MAP the networked Powerchurch drive, just linked to it using the network name. Follow the directions in this Knowledge Base article and it should work correctly in the future:

http://powerchurch.com/support/kb/kbvie ... icle_id=33

[swm]

Thank you. I will try this. I did not map a drive. I just ran netsetup11. Will I also have to run netsetup11 from the main computer's C drive on each computer after I map a drive?

[NeilZ]

Thank you. I will try this. I did not map a drive. I just ran netsetup11. Will I also have to run netsetup11 from the main computer's C drive on each computer after I map a drive?

Yes, you should do every step as listed in that article. Re-running NetSetup11 is critical as it will reset the program's settings on the local computer to use the newly mapped drive.

[swm]

Thank you so much. I will try this sometime today and see what happens.

[swm]

Well I tried this on two computers today and finally got one to work. The one that is now working is a Windows 7 computer. The one that I cannot get to work is a Windows XP computer. I still get the white page with the text as before. Is there a trick to getting powerchurch networked to the Windows XP computer?

[NeilZ]

Well I tried this on two computers today and finally got one to work. The one that is now working is a Windows 7 computer. The one that I cannot get to work is a Windows XP computer. I still get the white page with the text as before. Is there a trick to getting powerchurch networked to the Windows XP computer?

In actuality, its usually easier to get an XP machine networked, than it is to get a Win7 machine networked.

That said, what does the white page say??

If you mapped the shared drive from the server machine properly on the XP machine, and set the mapping to reconnect at logon, you should have a x:\ drive (where x: is the drive letter you mapped to) on the XP machine so that if you open that mapped drive from My Computer you'll see the main Powerchurch directory on the server machine.

You should then open the install directory and run the Netsetup11 from that mapped drive.

[swm]

Yes I did all the above that you said. But I did not see the X:\ at the front as you said.......the white page with text says something like: The path "\ PCPlus 11" does not exist........

I tried to do this on the XP computer 3 times.....after first doing it I could open it, but then after rebooting that computer.....I got the white page with text as above..........

???

[NeilZ]

Yes I did all the above that you said. But I did not see the X:\ at the front as you said.......the white page with text says something like: The path "\ PCPlus 11" does not exist........

I tried to do this on the XP computer 3 times.....after first doing it I could open it, but then after rebooting that computer.....I got the white page with text as above..........

???

If what you see is:

The path \PCPLUS11 does not exist then the mapping was not done correctly. What you should do is open My Computer, highlight that mapped drive, right click to bring up a menu, then select Disconnect.

Then from the left side of the My Computer window, look for Network Neighborhood or Network Places and click on that. The window should then display all networked computers. You should see the name of the 'server' computer (in my case, it would read CPC_Office) and click on that to open it. You should see the shared drive listed. Highlight, then Right click on that and you should see a menu with a selection "Map a Networked Drive", the Drive Mapping window should then open with the shared drive already showing in the Folder block. Select a drive letter from the list (I tend to use the same letter across all networked computers to remove any confusion - usually P:\ for Powerchurch) make sure the Reconnect at logon is selected, then click OK or Finish (I forget which).

You will then see the shared folder from the 'server', look for NetSetup11 (probably under the INSTALL folder), and run that again.

BTW ... the 'server' machine what operating system is it running ??

[swm]

Okay. I will try this...as you have just stated.

The main computer (server as you call it) is running Windows 7 Professional.

[Tracy]

Read through this post:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4667&start=0

Some how the mapping is not staying after a restart.
The NET USE command I demonstrate in a post there may need to be run each time the computer is restarted. It will not need administrative access after a restart.

[swm]

Can you explain the NET USE command a little better for me........how would we do that after each restart??

Thanks

[Tracy]

Code: Select all

NET USE P //ADMIN1/POWERCHURCH Password /USER:ADMIN1\PCPLUS

In the above example:

• P = The drive letter to assign the mapping to
• //ADMIN1 = The machine name of the server
• /POWERCHURCH = The share name on the server
• Password = the password of the user which exist on the server OS
• /USER:ADMIN1 = ADMIN1 needs to be the machine name, as above
• \PCPLUS = The user name on the server OS

You can put this into a Windows CMD file and add it to the workstation users "Startup" folder.
Start -> All Programs (Older OS's called this Programs) -> right click on Startup, select Open.

Open Notepad, type the command into it. Save it to the correct location with "mapdrive.cmd". Here the quotes are required when saving the file. If you don't use the quotes, you may end up with mapdrive.cmd.txt, which will just open in Notepad the next type you restart.

[swm]

Wow.....this is a little greek to me......don't understand why I have to go thru all of this just.......can you give me step by step on how to do this? Is this after I map the drive that I would do all of this????

[Tracy]

The reason is the increased security of Windows 7. If you had a Windows Server OS which you put PowerChurch on, you would need to log into it. This is the same thing.

The persistent setting would work if you were connecting to a Windows XP box from an XP box. When you use Windows Vista and Windows 7 a password is required.

I'll work on enhancing the online documentation. It will take some time. For now, you may need to map the drive each time you restart the computer. Or you might be able to find someone that understands what I've put together within your church.