Detecting the QuickBooks .ND file

There are a lot of QuickBooks related file types. In fact, just recently, I wrote a short article on a couple of new file types associated with QuickBooks 2017. 

But here, I want to show you how one of the most common QuickBooks file types – one that can be your best friend when it comes to "detecting" QuickBooks network problems.

I'm talking about the .ND file. *.QBW.ND files are configuration files that provide a description of your network – in other words, a Network Descriptor file.

The .ND files, located in the same directory as your QuickBooks Company file, tell the QuickBooks Application attempting to access a Company file where the QuickBooks Database Server is running.

If I use Microsoft Wordpad to open a *.QBW.ND file, this is what I see:

You say, "Looks like a bunch of gibberish to me." Maybe so. But let's look at what all of this really means. The information needed for QuickBooks on your workstation to communicate with the QuickBooks Database Server and your various company files is outlined in the following fashion:

Remember, in the typical networked QuickBooks environment, there should only be one computer acting as the QuickBooks Host and running the QuickBooks Database Server. This means there should never be more than one .ND file for each QuickBooks Company file.

One of the major causes of network issues with QuickBooks – including failure to connect or connection drop-outs – is when networks have been improperly configured with more than one ‘host’.

In these instances, we see multiple .ND files for the same QuickBooks Company file. And, if you open up each one of those .ND files, you'll see a different ServerIP address and a different server Engine Name.

This is a clear indication that "hosting" is (or has at some time has been) turned on by another computer in your network.

If you know the machine names of all of your office computers, the information in the EngineName field can guide you as to the offender. Or, if you're a Super Geek and know which computer is associated with the specific ServerIP address, you also have isolated the offending computer.

You must track down the computers that have hosting turned-on and turn it off. Next, you have to delete the wrong .ND files from the file directory where the Company file is stored. If you have doubts about which .ND file(s) to delete, delete them all. 

Now, use the QuickBooks Database Server Manager utility (shown above) to re-scan your QuickBooks Company files that will create a new .ND file for each Company file.

With just a little "Data Detective" work, and snooping around in the right places (like the inside of the .ND file), you can identify some of the most frequent culprits of improper and ineffective QuickBooks networking.