In a multi-user environment there are 2 QuickBooks services that need to be able to communicate with the computer on which the company file (.qbw) is located. For QuickBooks 2009, these services are QBCFMonitorService and QuickBooksDB19. For earlier versions of QuickBooks, the service QuickBooks19 will be named QuickBooksXX, where XX is replaced by 2 digits.
Windows Firewall can block these services, preventing normal multi-user operation. Some common QuickBooks errors that may be associated with firewall issues are listed at the bottom of this post.
To stop this unwanted behavior, the solution is to add both services to the Exceptions list in Windows Firewall on both the computer hosting the company file (.qbw) and each workstation in the multi-user configuration. The Exceptions list is a list of programs that Windows Firewall will not block. The executable files (including their normal folder locations) are:
C:Program FilesIntuitQuickBooks2009QBDBMgrN.exe
C:Program FilesCommon FilesIntuitQuickBooksQBCFMonitorService.exe
Start with the computer hosting the company file and proceed to each workstation in turn, completing the steps outlined below on each computer.
To add these programs to the Windows Firewall Exceptions list in Windows XP, click the Start button and open the Control Panel. Choose Windows Firewall in Classic View or Security Center in Category View. Click on the Exceptions tab as shown below.
Click the Add Program… button to add the first service to the Exceptions list. Click the Browse… button and navigate to the location of your QuickBooks program. For QuickBooks 2009, this is usually:
C:Program FilesIntuitQuickBooks2009
Choose QBDBMgrN.exe from the list and click Open. Click Ok to add this service to the Exceptions list.
Repeat this process to add the next service to the Exceptions list. Click the Add Program… button and navigate to the location for common files used by Intuit products. For QuickBooks 2009, this is usually:
C:Program FilesCommon FilesIntuitQuickBooks
Choose QBCFMonitorService.exe from the list and click Open. Click Ok to add this service to the Exceptions list.
Once you’ve successfully added both services to the Exceptions list, they’ll appear in the list of programs and services as shown below:
Repeat these steps to add both services to the Exceptions list on each workstation in the multi-user configuration.
Firewall problems may manifest themselves as the following QuickBooks errors: