I have 2 pc's on my local LAN at work which are connected by a linksis fire walled router. I have no problem moving files and such between both of them. The problem lies in the shared master data file that QuickBooks uses. The file resides on PC-A and PC-B user logs in as a second user and they simultaneously share the same file at the same time. What happens is the connection between the two PCS is sporadically interrupted and PC-B is forced out of the file, which causes PC-B's user to have to log in again. Liksis blames the software and QuickBooks blames everything else. Anyone have any ideas on how to clean up this connection?

Stats PC-A
Dell 1.8 celeron
1 gig ram
180 gig HD
XP Home
Norton Internet Security
QuickBooks 2005
UPS

Stats PC-B
Dell 1.8 celeron
1 gig ram
180 gig HD
XP Home
QuickBooks 2005
Windows built in firewall

Just thinking out loud and asking questions:

Does PC-B lose connection at other times, or only when accessing that file?
When did this problem start?
Did it ever work right? If so, what has changed?

Thanks for having some interest in my problem!! Ok so here is the boring story. I set up this network about a year ago for this company I just started working for. I got the two PCs networked without much trouble, however they did not communicate well at that time. About a week and a few Windows updates later all seemed to be well (not sure why but the two Pcs started to communicate just fine by no action of my own), haven’t had a problem in 10 months. Well the initial problem of the Pc to Pc re-miscommunication started because my boss is a Pc idiot and refused to spend the money on any PC defensive software..(anti virus, anti spyware, software firewall) well guess what, a week and a half ago he lost the software version of Russian roulette. So I spent about 10 hours at home and in the office removing trojans and updating his junk and now the initial problem of the two Pcs not communicating well enough for Quick Books to be happy has show its angry head again. And since I did nothing the first time and the problem went away, I'm clueless as to what I could do to fix it this time. Besides updating UPS and staying on top of the windows updates Norton total internet security is the only thing new to the systems. Pc-B has not changed and no version updates to Quick books has happened.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks

I would suggest you make sure both systems are clean of malware. I suggest you check out my sticky, Cleaning Out Malware. Use it if you don't already have a complete security suite and disk cleaning utilities to rid those systems of malware and clutter. You can also use it as a guide to build your own security suite, and to help you develop or enhance a "Practicing Safe Computing" self-discipline.