Hi Bertram,

I know you posted your issue months ago. I too am experiencing the same problem. What your hosting company is probably doing is performing an iireset. When the database gets a lock, it takes an iireset to remove ALL active sessions. Then the database lock can be deleted. If you have acess to the server, you can run a basic query which would also free up the lock as well. Not sure yet to why this happens but I am looking to upgrade to the SQL Server database. Hope this helps.

~FOCK~

Bertram wrote: I really would love to change the host, but as I said before, I'm hosting several sites there, and it would be really way too much work to change the host right now. Except for their crappy support and that DB lock-up problem everthing is working fine. It's a German host, called 1und1 (or Puretec, it's the same). Funny enough, the problem didn't occur for the last 4 days now. That's a new record. But it will be back as it always was.

Unless you have some overiding reason to think that things will get better, they will probably get worse. You're better off to start moving sites under a controlled process than to wait until the next disaster and have to scramble to move the sites in panic mode.

First off, thanks to all of you for your many replies, the links and the help you provided!

Second, the permissions are all set correctly, only when the DB locks up then the permissions are somehow overwritten and changed to "no access".  It is the same effect as someone would open the DB exclusivly on the hosts server. (Except for the creation of the .ldb file, what isn't created when the DB is opened exculsively). But the symptoms are the very same.

Third, the DB is not located in the original forum/admin/database folder but in a database folder outside of the forum directory that was created by the host for Access-database-use only.

@thekiwi, I don't get any error messages when the trying to access the forum while the DB is locked. The browser just tries to load for several minutes(!) and then comes up with "site is not available".

The only thing I can do while the DB is locked is to download it over the http control center my host provides. I can put the downloaded and unchanged DB on my local server and then it works without any problems.

I really would love to change the host, but as I said before, I'm hosting several sites there, and it would be really way too much work to change the host right now. Except for their crappy support and that DB lock-up problem everthing is working fine. It's a German host, called 1und1 (or Puretec, it's the same).

Funny enough, the problem didn't occur for the last 4 days now. That's a new record.

But it will be back as it always was.

Bertram wrote: I'm using some mods. But even when uploading the clean unmodded forum (including the original wwforum.mdb) the database will lock. The forum has been on free hosts before and worked without any problems for months. On my local server it works too. It's only with my paid host that the problems are occurring. And their support is....well.....as much of a help as my grandmother.

Not sure but try this, may be it doesnt work again

I think your databse is still in the forum/admin/database folder

So, first of all check that the database folder has ALL The permissions.

Secondly, move the database to the root or some other folder the hosts give for database which has WRITE permissions and then change the path in common.asp

PS

Is this the error you get:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://suppor t.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/q306/2/69.asp&NoW ebContent=1

Note on LDB files
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q208/7/78.a sp

Bertram wrote: Hello, I'm using the WWF 7.7 forum (access) for 2 weeks now and enjoying it very much. The only problem that ever occured is that now and then the mdb-database is locking. That means that .ldb file won't go away for hours or even days. I can't even delete it. (I can get to the file structure via http, when trying to delete the .ldb file it says "no rights") As long as it is there, the forum is not available. It just tries to load for about 10 minutes and then comes up with an "unavailable" error message. The hosting company is blaming the forum-software for it, what I can not believe, as nobody else seems to have that problem here. I have to call the hosting company all the time and ask them to do something about it. Then, after some hours, the .ldb-file is gone and the forum is working perfectly again. Now, is there someone who can explain what the problem might be and how to solve it? What could be misconfigured on the hosts server that causes such a problem? (I can not change the host, because of several reasons.) Any help yould be greatly appreciated.

This is an Administrative task for your host.

Basically the WWW Server needs permission to delete the .ldb file. 

what host are you using?

change ASAP!

I'm using some mods. But even when uploading the clean unmodded forum (including the original wwforum.mdb) the database will lock.

The forum has been on free hosts before and worked without any problems for months. On my local server it works too.
It's only with my paid host that the problems are occurring.

And their support is....well.....as much of a help as my grandmother.