One of my clients has a stand alone. Originally set it up so that IF a new till was needed we could just connect it up, however this is never going to happen in a quiet village pub.
If I was to do a backup of the POS, uninstall everything - including all instances of SQL… then installed Samba v5 from scratch… then imported the backup… would that make it more stable as a standalone till?
Sorry for the noobie Q, just I rarely install samba lol
Matt
Is it unstable??
Other than the firewall ports what would be different? Or do you mean changing to LocalDB Database?
yeah localdb rather than sql
edit, I know its sql but u know
Is there an issue as it is?
They turn the bloody thing off and on whenever they want, they disconnect it from the internet… really fks me off, they call me with problems and I cant log in to it remotely.
It buggers up the database when they do that
They also uninstalled the license the other day because the manager gives them all access (this is the till I want to change how it makes users)
I’m going there tomorrow to sort the thing out, I’m tired of getting called up daily
How would local db solve those issues?
There all user related…
If he is allowing staff to run wild on till after being explained the situation regardless of any support arrangement you should charge. Is missuse, not supportable issue…
no idea, I was just hoping it would lol
Dont think it would solve those issues…
Why does he give them full access?
unorganised.
I gave him a manual on how to add products, add users… but he lost it and didn’t tell me then came to me with a whole list of things that needed adding…
He wont add users, he just gives them his fob…
infact hes probably lost all the fobs I gave him.
Its been 6 months now so I’m setting up a management plan for him and charging him callouts for when he d/c from the net
Make sure misuse is excluded and always chargeable, people soon pay attention when they realize plain ignorance costs money.
reverting back to the original Q.
I remember when I installed Samba for the first time, I never had any DB connection issues… it just ran
DB connection issues with SQL on same machine as Samba?
agreed it may be Windows 10 and I might not have updated the DB yet… but I was thinking of the time issue.
I’m currently installing updated management tools on my laptop and I’m 1hr in so far
Localdb is sqlexpress too the only difference is it is single user only and it runs in a process with sambapos instead of as a service.
I honestly feel this will make the whole thing more stable for them
Try it and see. I doubt it. you can screw up the connection to it the same way.
If the issue is they switch off the power and that is screwing up the database, changing to LocalDB won’t really help, unless a very specific scenario - if they first close SambaPOS, wait a few seconds before pulling the plug, then LocalDB “might” be more reliable, because the database instance will be closed and the database server running as single user will be shut down. However, I’m sure they don’t care and they just switch off the power with SambaPOS running and therefore no difference.
With SQL Express, even SambaPOS is closed, the database server is still running in the background.
There is no performance difference between LocalDB and SQL Express.
One question is, how are they switching it off? Are they pressing the power button? If so, then just assign the shutdown behaviour to the power button in control panel > power options. It’s very rare a PC these days will just “turn off” if you press the power button - the default behaviour is usually either shutdown, sleep / hibernate or asks you what to do. Pressing the power button and the system shutting down won’t affect the database or SambaPOS as it’s a graceful shutdown - the same as if you go to Start > shutdown.
If they turn off at the plug or pull out the cable, this is a user education issue and they just need to be told not to do it. Like others say, this is their responsibility and you need to ensure you charge them for fixing that and any support contract doesn’t include this stupidity in the contract so you can charge them more. Do that and overnight your problem is solved! 
But also maybe stick a large sticker on the plug saying “DO NOT TURN OFF” or similar, and put a bit of tape over the socket switch so they cannot easily switch it off.
Anyone who uses a computer has very little excuse in believing its ok just to pull the plug, marks suggestions are great and Id go with that. If the problems are all related to misuse then reinstalling wont solve the issue.
While there are few excuses to believe just turning off is ok, I bet they dont do that on their own PC and its just lack of respect for someone else property, tell them they cant do it like that and put a big sticker on it saying shut down properly.