TurboCASH comes standard as a multi-user product. It is important for you to know that the Paradox BDE files used in TurboCASH are not encrypted or protected. The password system is there only to inhibit end-users from tinkering with the system data. Any reasonably technically competent programmer can use a tool to directly open these files.

The Paradox BDE is an old fashioned File handling system that has come in for a lot of criticism by programmers favoring newer SQL style databases. Certainly there are a lot of arguments in favour of this, but you will find that working in a single user environment or a small user network that this database system is faster than any of the SQL alternatives. So for the target market of TurboCASH users, i.e. single users and 2-5 user networks, it is fine.

- TurboCASH also supports SQL arguments and queries in the T3DataUtil and the SQL Browser. Programmers and / or Consultants use these to view and analyse the data in a Set of Books.

The BDE just keeps going. As machines have improved, performance has also improved. If you are running all your machines with 1 to 5 users using Windows XP and greater than 2 MHz CPU with 512 MB of RAM, then you should have no problem using databases with as many as 500,000 records.

- We have some users with as many as 10 users. Large Windows 2003 servers and Linux SAMBA servers can increase this. By introducing Razor Accounting Servant we have been able to get as many as 150 users.....

But lets keep it simple and aim TurboCASH at the 1-5 user networks. Bigger than that and security and installation become an overriding issue.

It is assumed that you have a Working Network and that you are able to see another PC using My Network places.

Here is an example of three machines linked together. If you are not familiar with how to do this, you will need someone that knows about networking fundamentals or you will need to dig through the Windows Help system to figure it out. Broadly, it works by setting up the Windows Client Networks and setting all TCP/IP addresses to the same network.

Once you have a functional Windows network installed you are ready to proceed. In the above example we can see three machines Gina, Philip and Sylvain. Sylvain will act as the server.

It is prudent to set up the server on the most powerful PC in your network. You need to share its hard drive with the other PC’s in the network.

1. On the machine that is going to be the Server (Sylvain). Select Sharing and Security option to Share a drive.
   - You can share: -
   • The whole drive, or;
   • Only the TCASH3 directory (or TurboCASH installation directory)
   • Or only the Set of Books directory.
2. Choose TCASH3 as you may wish to share more than one Set of Books.

1. Now on each Client machine you need to MAP this drive.
2. Open Windows Explorer, click on My Network Places and highlight the drive that you wish to map.
3. On each client machine make the network drive the same, let’s choose “Z” from the drop down list.
   

1. The BDE (Borland Database Engine) is controlled in the Control Panel.
   
   
2. In the Control Panel, click on the icon.
3. The BDE Administrator screen will be displayed. Click on the Configuration tab:
   
   
4. Click on the Drivers option.
5. First you must configure the NET DIR drive for Paradox. This MUST be the same on all machines and also on the server (if you are going to enter transactions from the server).
   - You get this in: Configuration > Drivers > Native > PARADOX
6. The BDE Administrator will create a file called PDOXUSRS.NET which it will place in this Drive.
   - If the NET DIR directory is different for different clients, unpredictable results will occur.
   - You MUST click the blue update button on the Toolbar for changes to take effect!
7. Click on the System option.
   
   
8. Select System > INIT > LOCALSHARE This must be set to TRUE.
   - Remember to click the Reset button. (Blue Update icon).

The BDE can be adjusted to give improved speed.

1. If you get messages “lockfile too large” you can set the size Configuration→System→INIT→SharedMemSize to a larger number (16384 = 16 MB).
   
   
2. The standard file is 2048, increase this to 16384.
   - You can also increase the MAXBUFSIZE and MAXFILEHANDLES to improve performance. This is a balance between network performance and Windows Resources. However with a 512 MB Windows XP machine you should have few problems.
   - To find more information about these fields, press F1 Help Key, whilst the above screen is still displayed.

TurboCASH uses the NET DIR drive and creates lock files. These will stop conflicts if two users try to enter the same record at the same time.

• PDOXUSRS.LCK
• PARADOX.LCK

If you get a lock-out error trying to access a TurboCASH Set of Books, make sure that all users exit the system and then delete these two files. You will find them in the NET DIR directory (TCASH3 or Installation Directory) on your server machine.

You may wish to test TurboCASH on a network to monitor performance of your network.
- By default, you cannot run more than one copy of TurboCASH on any one machine. However, for network testing purposes, you may wish to run several copies on several machines. For example: you have a three user network and by running three copies of TC3 on each machine you can simulate a nine user network.

1. To enable this feature, RIGHT click on the TurboCASH icon and reset the properties in your target application box by adding the words MULTY TRUE as displayed:
   
   
2. Click the Apply button and re-start TurboCASH normally.

You will have to go through all the processes of network setup. You MUST create one user for each machine in the simulation. Do not log in twice as the same user.

Now you can open Invoicing and in the bottom left of the Invoicing screen the following box is displayed on the left. This will let you automatically generate as many invoices as you like in millisecond slices.

(1000 MS = 1 Second).

On the Update Ledger (Batches option) screen, the Interval in milli-seconds setting and Start button would then also be displayed:

You can set some of the machines automatically to process invoices, while on other machines, you may run other processes (e.g. post invoices or run reports). You will see that you can run very large systems with TurboCASH.

- It is not advisable to enable this feature “Just to see what it does”. It is a tool for Network Administrators to simulate network traffic in a test environment.