Newbie, on his knees, crying..........

[sussex]

I am a newbie to this site, so I'll apologise now for the inevitable ettiquette gaffes I'm about to make!

I am also a newbie to *everything* I am trying to do here and I need a little help.

I am using :

WinXP up to date
Access 2002
msaccess to mysql converter by Bullzip
mySql ODBC driver 3.51
latest version of mySql Migration tool
mysql client v3.23.49

I am paying for hosting space on a mysql only server running:

php 4.4.4 and mysql

I have put phpmyadmin 2.9.2 on the server, I tried the latest version but got more problems than I do with this version.

When I log into phpmyadmin I get the error:

"The mbstring PHP extension was not found and you seem to be using a multibyte charset. Without the mbstring extension phpMyAdmin is unable to split strings correctly and it may result in unexpected results."


My questions are:

How does Access save OLE objects in the .mdb file?

I ask because I cannot get the OLE objects to export. I can get the db structure and the text data to appear on the server but all OLE objects are missing (.jpg, .gif and .doc). The .mdb file of my db is about 17mb, which seems about right but only a few kbs gets exported.

None of the OLE objects are bigger than about 50k.

Am I missing something?

Also, if I try to use access2mysql or the odbc drivers I get an error saying that mysql received packets bigger than max allowed. mySql migration tool seems to be ok although still no OLE objects.

My db is 18mb total and is very, very simple, it's the first one I've made!

So far, all suggestions have required me to have access to the server files, but obviously the hosts won't let me do that and say that no-one else has these problems, their settings are suitable for most things. I believe them.

I'd be interested to know what software others use to create, maintain and export their databases, could I be using something better?

My database will never be massive and the most important thing for me is the ability to update the db on the server without having to upload the entire db each time, like a syncronisation. Can I do this using mysql migration tool?

Finally, I'll apologise now if this post is not in the right place, my questions are pretty wide ranging and I am really tearing my hair out now after days of sweat and tears. Does anybody know of a website where I can learn this stuff from the very beginning? All the sites I've looked at so far are mega-technical and I don't get it.

Thanks for any help at all,

sussex

[sussex]

Ok, I've cracked my biggest problem.

I re-built my db in msaccess from the ground up and now I can export to the mysql server without the "packet too big" error. All the OLE objects are showing up.

It must have been a problem with the original db build.

Hope this helps someone.