How to Troubleshoot an Inconsistent Data Refresh

There are several causes for inconsistent data refreshes. The client's PC may not always be online. This means the PC may have been turned off or there is an issue with the Internet Service Provider. Our software is dependent on both power to the PC and Internet connectivity. Consult the practice or their IT people to verify power and internet connectivity are consistent.

The next cause is invalid or missing usernames and passwords. If the client changes a password or removes a user account, that needs to be updated in our software. With a web-based practice management system, the username and password are 100% required. We can not read data if the username and password are either blank or incorrect. We also need to have a valid Windows username and password entered in the utility. If the computer is locked, logged off, or no user is signed in the utility requires a valid Windows login to run. When installing the software a Windows profile is created called "Sikkauser". The problem we run into is many IT companies set passwords to expire after 45 days. This means that the password set to Sikkauser will expire after that 45 day period. When the password expires it can no longer be used by our utility to run. After ruling out the possibility of power, internet connectivity, and/or the PC just being turned off, the next step is to update both the PMS and Windows logins in the utility

On the second Tuesday of every month, Microsoft releases new Windows updates. depending on the system configuration, updates may automatically download and prepare to be installed. On the next system reboot the updates will finish installing. This is referred to as pending Windows updates when this happens our software is not able to successfully communicate with our servers until the system is rebooted. The solution is to simply reboot the system.

Now that we know power and internet connectivity are consistent, The computer is being left on, all the usernames and passwords are updated, and there are no pending Windows updates we have to check the antivirus software on the system. Sikka does apply for and is approved as a whitelisted program. This means that the antivirus software knows our utility is legitimate and not a security threat so it does not block or quarantine components of our software. However, the heuristics or behavioral detection does sometimes trigger when we read data from the client's database. The utility is then blocked from communicating with our servers and data fails to refresh. The solution is to set an exclusion in the antivirus software for the entire installation folder for our utility which by default is located at %localappdata%\sscservice. The steps to set an exclusion to vary and we always recommend contacting the vendor for support with their antivirus software.

With power and internet connectivity consistent, The computer is being left on, all the usernames and passwords are updated, there are no pending Windows updates, and the antivirus software is configured to allow our software to run, we need to check that the Practice Management System database is online. Some Practice Management Systems like Eaglesoft have the server Eaglesoft is installed on and the "Eaglesoft Server". The Eaglesoft Server manages the database itself allowing you to take it offline to perform a system backup or online so the Eaglesoft client can be opened and the Practice Management System can be used. To verify that the database is online when our utility is scheduled to refresh please check with the practice or their IT people to determine when the database is being taken offline for system backups