I am using the Windows API INI file functions, specifically "WritePrivateProfileString", to write to an INI file that is stored on a shared volume on a Novel Netware network. If a single user causes entries to be made to the INI file no problems occur. (For the record, no problems occur writing to local INI files either.) However, if multiple users attempt to write to the network INI file in the same general time period, although not necessarily at the same exact moment, it is not uncommon for some of the attempts to fail.

It appears as though some kind of lock is being put on the file, interfering with the write operation, which is not being released right away. Repeated attempts sometimes result in success. If some kind of lock is being placed on the file and not being released I don't know whether the problem is Windows or Netware or both, or something else altogether. Again, I use these INI functions to write to local files all the time and have never experienced a single failure.

Any suggestions, solutions, work arounds, or explanations would be most helpful.