Streamline.Net www.Streamline.net Review

Overall Rating

Cheap ASP hosting.

ASP database connections regularly failed. Technical support.

My site had some pages which used ASP to connect to an Access database. These pages were down two-thirds of the time, showing a database connection error message. Streamlinenet technical support is provided by a help ticket system. I tried to get the problem resolved for 4 months via this ticket system before eventually giving up. Most replies which came back up to 24 hours later were zero help. A third of the time I was told "It's working!", because that was about the frequency that those pages were working! Twice I had "Corrupt database", which I demonstrated to be false both times. I had a vague, standard reply blaming the problem on the internet, a connection problem at my end, maintenance work or a temporary glitch (that's one persistent glitch!). The fact I was using a DSN-less connection was blamed once, even though those are allowed by them. The DSN they eventually set up for me worked about the same proportion of time, but gave a different error for a bit of variety! I was told my Access database was to blame because they only allow limited numbers of consecutive users. They also blamed my ASP scripting. Both these last two were disproved when the same pages worked 100% of the time after being moved to another host (Streamlinenet took this as a cue to mark my support ticket as 'Fixed' !). Some replies were annoying because it appeared they hadn't bothered reading the ticket history before replying. The only thing that wasn't conceded as a possible culprit was their own server, even though I sent them Microsoft's suggested server-based explanation of the problem. Having said all that, another reviewer here, with a PHP based site, gives this company 10/10, so maybe it's only an ASP - Access problem?"

Members' Comments onshedlord's Review

• jratsey on 9th Jun 2005

  I've had several months of database connection problems using MS Access and Streamline. The specific error is: Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005' [Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver]General error Unable to open registry key 'Temporary (volatile) Jet DSN for process 0x1850 Thread 0x1b90 DBC 0x11226024 Jet'. And they have the cheek to say that it's a development issue - like hello? I worked for Microsoft for 4 years as a developer and have an MSCD....

• shedlord on 11th Jun 2005

  That's the one. Even a stripped down page that simply connects then disconnects from the database (then closes the database object, obviously) will trigger this error two thirds of the time. * Streamlinenet wrongly said the database was corrupt twice - proved incorrect because a crisp new database did the same. * Streamlinenet blamed it on my use of DSN-Less connection - even though they explicitly allow these (and it works some of the time anyway, so what gives?). They set up a DSN for me eventually, and this didn't work either! * Streamlinenet gave me the same standard brush off response, vaguely blaming the problem on the internet itself, twice. * I posted my exact connection string. Streamlinenet suggested some syntax changes. No change. * Streamlinenet claimed it was due to my use of an Access database, which have limits on how many users can be connected at once. I moved the live versions of the affected pages to another server, leaving the originals to be visited only by a website monitor. The monitor continued to report the same downtime even though there was only the web-bot visiting these pages! * Streamlinenet claimed it was a problem with my scripting. When I pointed out the exact same pages were working perfectly on a different server they marked my support request as fixed!!! Get the picture? Bottom line is: There's a serious and recurring problem when using ASP to connect to MS Access databases on Streamlinenet's server. If you try to get them to fix it they appear reluctant to even consider it could be a problem at their side.

• jratsey on 13th Jun 2005

  Well, this in the method I use to get the full path to the database based on a DNS-less connection:
  
  Session("ACCESS") = "Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)}; DBQ=" & Server.MapPath("/htdocs/data/makeiteasy.mdb") & ";"
  
  They (Streamkline support) have suggested some fantastic reasons for failure, short of blaming Harry Potter.
  
  Just to sanity check the error check this link, http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;295297
  
  I sent the above link to support but they generally ignored it.