I just took over the network and the company I work for. One of the first things I did was take the very old and large server that was being used for file sharing out and replaced with a NAS. Since I moved all the files to the NAS the paradox database the company uses isn't locking properly. I did some research and found out that it could be due to write cache and opportunistic locking. I was able to access samba on the NAS and turn off the opportunistic locking on the database share, but the write cache is built into the hardware and I have no way of turning off. Is there anything I can do to get my locking to work again.

actually, oplocks and write caching problems (and/or the BDE set for Local Share = FALSE) usually lead to immediate file-synch problems, because this causes the tables and indexes to NOT get properly written back to disk..

this, in turn, results in tables that can't be opened, which causes your program to fail.. to someone that doesn't understand the internal processes, it DOES seem to be locking failure.. "it can't lock one of the tables".. because the table is hosed..

oplocks off, in the registry.. write caching off, in the properties of the drives.. local share TRUE, in every copy of the BDE..

locking/sharing problems occur when one or more stations are pointing to the Net file and/or the data folders incorrectly.. every station must point to the net file, and to any shared folders, using the EXACT SAME path/mapping.. not just "it resolves to the same place".. the path string must be exactly the same.. even the upper/lower case, in some scenarios, so it's always best to always consider it that way.. "I'm locked out of the app".. because either you're mapped wrong, and the other guys are already in, or the "wrong" guy got in before any of the "correct" guys..

so.. the first thing to do is determine if you really have a settings problem, like you described, or a locking/sharing problem, like I described..

The programs and database work fine it even locks the file. It just doesn't up date immediately I have checked all the settings and they are all exactly the same. If I open the same records on two different machines and have one edit the other can't edit. Once its edited the record on the other pc doesn't update till you close out of the record and reopen it. I'm not sure that there is a problem but the person that wrote the database and the program to access the database says there is a problem. They are the one that said its write cache and the oplock. The programmer claims that if the same record is open on two machines and one machine edits it, the other should show the edit immediately which is not happening. I am not sure if thats the way its supposed to work or not.

I'm not sure that there is a problem but the person that wrote the database and the program to access the database says there is a problem.

yes, you are now describing your scenario, not mine.. I already told you what needs to be done, most of which you already knew..

oplocks off, in the registry, on every machine.. write caching off, in the properties of the drives, on every machine.. local share TRUE, in every copy of the BDE (that should be on every machine, but I've seen 'on the server' installations).. all three things need to be done, to clear away all possible "caching" concepts.. you should be able to get to the properties of the drives, in some manner..