A client has recently had a problem related to open files and data loss, essentially a workstation was left idling for several days ( User went home with monitor off, computer running )

The system crashed and NT magically restored a data file to the state they were in when the idling station last was used, losing a couple of days data!

Fortunately, the data existed in several places, but it had to be manually merged !

I suggested they should NOT allow the users to keep files open that are not being used, rather than the default of never closing them.

( IE if you see the main menu, you could assume all files are closed rather than worry that all files are open! )

This is a personal prejudice, open for discussion!

In the server world, I wondered if it makes more sense to have "customer" servers that handle the transactions and "host" servers that actually do the work , the same way that SQL actually handles the data in an SQL environment, or is the complexity more trouble than the benefits?

thx

mike