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Too many WB users on network

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 9:50 am
by John
I have a client with a very old version of WB.exe (dated 1991) and I'm trying to get it to run on my Windows Vista machine. It keeps giving me a startup error of "Too many WB users on network" and it only allows me to use E to exit. I know this program is 20 years old but can anyone help me figure out how to get it to run on my computer? any ideas?

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 10:01 am
by Susan Smith
John, do you know what WB version it was? And was it a multi-user version? There were some older versions that didn't have multiple sessions (as I recall - could be a mistake) and it's possible that it might not work on a newer O/S no matter what you do. Is it a full version, limited or runtime only?

What is the client's operating system? Have you tried loading their WB system on a WinXP machine?

What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to bring an older user up to date? Or diagnose a problem? Is the client local? Can you go to THEIR machine and save all of the code as source and reload it in a more current version of BR?

-- Susan

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 10:04 am
by Susan Smith
Have you tried to load their WB.exe (not their programs) with a stripped down config.sys just to see if you can get it to load at all?

-- Susan

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 10:08 am
by bluesfannoz
I would recommend since you will likely be running into this more and more setting up something like VirtualBox on your machine with a copy of Win98 or Windows XP that you can fire up these old versions within.

http://www.virtualbox.org/

Have you tried running it in Compatibility Mode or as Administrator? Right click the EXE and pick one of those options and see what happens?

HTH
Steve

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 10:12 am
by PJKLUG
I have a wb.exe dated 12/27/1991 at 335kb. It is version 3.52a. It runs on my current XP Pro. I believe those were licensed per install disk and you were pretty much able to copy them anywhere. Mine opened fine. It may only be a single user license. You may have a Novell version? My later 3.61 Novell version just flashes and dies.

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 12:12 pm
by John
I'll give VirturalBox a shot! Thanks. This time I was able to solve the problem on their machine but I do need to run their software locally sometimes... especially for conversions from old dissimilar systems to the newer system.

Pete - This one is probably 3.5ish also. It ran fine on their windows XP machine but I couldnt get past the errors on my Win Vista and my Win 7 (64 bit) wouldn't even pretend to run it.

Thanks for the tips!!!

-John Bowman

P.S. Susan - the wbconfig.sys was already VERY minimal - i looked at it first thing :) - good thinking!

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 12:18 pm
by GomezL
I remember some of the older versions required a "Hardware Dongle".

BR has made a ton of changes to work properly in Vista/Windows 7.

I tried to run an old DOS copy, and found my 64 bit OS can't run it at all! (DOS is 16 Bit).

I tried running 366 in my "Virtual XP Box", and it did run, but in a DOS Window, and it "Looked Funny".

I know that BR 4.2 added quite a few "Options" to remain compatible with "OLD Versions" of WB. In theory it should be possible to set the options and have the old program work. Certainly make sure you are using GUI OFF.

As a Bonus, BR 4.2 is a 32 bit application so it's a "Billion Times Faster" when run in Windows 2000+ (I am exaggerating, but not much!)

A VM is a good short term answer.

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 12:14 pm
by John
I have another customer with this "Too many WB users on network" error. They're using wb 3.67c on Windows XP on a network. They have a 4-user license and 4 computers. The problem began when they moved one of their machines (probably on a different port on their router or something). They've since rebooted their server, but it continues to get this error.

I've looked for wbserver.dat to delete but it does not exist. How can I fix this? ANY IDEAS?

-John