Help Desk News and Updates: November 2005

The final version of Lytec 2006 Service Pack 1 is now available. We will be burning it to CDs and shipping them out ASAP. For those of you who have not yet received your copy of 2006, we will be shipping SP-1 on CD with your Lytec discs. For those of you who have already installed, we will be calling you to help you download and install the service pack or give you the option to wait for it to arrive on CD (recommended for slow internet connections).

If you have any questions about SP-1, just give us a call. Once again, SP-1 will be made available to everyone who purchased Lytec 2006 from Dabbs Computer Consultants, without cost.

We have received word that SP-1 will be released by next Monday. It can be downloaded directly from NDC Health, or we can send you a CD. Dabbs customers who have already upgraded to 2006 (as of the time the Service Pack is released) will receive CDs containing SP-1. This will save you the time of downloading the very large file -- even on high-speed connections, the download can take over 2 hours. A CD with the file will help you install in a matter of minutes on each machine.

We are expecting Service Pack 1 (SP-1) to be released within the next two weeks. It is currently in "beta" (testing) form and it should resolve the vast majority of the speed issues and Crystal Reports problems some users have reported. If you haven't yet installed 2006, we recommend waiting until SP-1 is released. If you have any questions, please call us.

We have discovered, and have been informed of, a few bugs in the first release of Lytec 2006 that were not fixed prior to the release:

1. Do NOT upgrade the SQL Admin utility to the SQL Admin Studio trial version. This will wipe out the SQL Admin utility that came with Lytec, and the trial version will only last 7 days. Note that this doesn't mean to uncheck the box to install SQL Admin, it only means do not upgrade it after it is initially installed.

2. There are some issues with the Advanced Reporting Utility that have a "patch" available. If you are using the Crystal Reports Advance Reporting Utility, please call us and we can get you the appropriate patches.

3. There is an updated version of Medical Connect available for download. Please call us for assistance.

1. Disable all software firewalls that are running on the computer. This includes Windows Firewall, Norton Internet Security, McAfee firewalls, and any other kind of third-party firewall software. We have found these to interfere with the machine's ability to find the Lytec practice list on the server. We have not yet determined if these firewalls will interfere *after* installation.

2. If you will be using our installation services, please make sure your computers are already networked with each other, and please make sure at least your server has internet access, if not all computers.

Following these tips will help create a smoother installation experience.

I have personally attempted to install Lytec 2006 five times on a Windows 98 machine, and have found the two are not compatible. I wanted to be thorough, so I later completely reformatted and reinstalled Windows 98 before testing three more times, and still was unable to make the program work. In the past Lytec was not supported on older machines, but it would still run. This is no longer the case. The following is an email Todd will be sending to our customers:

Hello everyone!

I wanted to take a minute to let you know that we have received your Lytec 2006 upgrade and are in the process of registering and packaging your order for shipment. As most of you know, we are recommending that you wait a couple of weeks to install your new upgrade, in order to avoid any bugs that may have been missed during the beta testing process. We have installed several new sites, and everything seems to be going very well. I will be doing my first upgrade next week and should be able to let everyone know how it goes.

As most of you know, your Lytec 2006 upgrade will include the new database engine that runs with Microsoft SQL. This should mean much faster reporting and increased stability in the database. One bump that we have hit with the new SQL database is that it will not install on any computer with Windows 95 or 98. This is because Microsoft SQL leverages new technology that is not available in Windows 98 and earlier systems. NDC stated last year that Lytec 2005 would not support practices using Windows 98 machines, but it could still be installed and used. With the newest version, Lytec 2006, this is no longer the case. Lytec 2006 will not even install on a Windows 98 machine. If you have been waiting until absolutely necessary to upgrade your older Windows operating system, it is now officially absolutely necessary.

We have completed our checks on the software and we are sending the discs out throughout the first week of November. If you need the software immediately, please call and let us know. We will make sure your disc is one of the first ones out the door. We plan to have them all shipped by about the middle of November. Thank you for your patience. The response to the upgrade has been fantastic.