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Welcome to the Q-Built Solutions Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. We'll try to answer the most common questions visitors to our Web site may have. If you find that your question is not answered on this page, please contact us.
Topics:1. Finding lost or forgotten passwords for a Microsoft Access database file
2. Converting a Microsoft Access MDE file back into an MDB file
3. Getting your files to us 4. Low-cost database solutions
Finding lost or forgotten passwords for a Microsoft Access database fileQ: Can you retrieve a user-level security password, or are you limited to just finding the database password? A: We can retrieve all passwords from the Microsoft Access built-in user-level security and the database level security. We have retrieved passwords from Microsoft Access database files versions 2.0 through 2003. Q: Do you use a "dictionary attack" or "brute force" attack to find passwords? A: We use neither method. We do it the quick and easy way. We've built tools that decrypt and read the encrypted password directly from the database file in a fraction of a second, regardless of the length of the password, which can be up to 20 characters. Q: What is a dictionary attack? A: A dictionary attack uses a large file that often contains from one to five million words or more (these are all words that one can easily find in a dictionary), then attempts to open the database file using an individual word in the file as the password. If the first try doesn't work, then the next word in the dictionary is used for the next attempt. If this doesn't work either, then the next word in the dictionary is used, and so on, until either one of the words opens the password-protected file or the last word in the dictionary is used. This is a little better than trying to guess the password, but most users have been warned not to use words in the dictionary for their passwords in order to prevent just this sort of attack from succeeding. We do not recommend this method for finding the password. It takes far too long to find that it often doesn't succeed, because the password isn't in the dictionary. Q: What is a "brute force" attack? A: A brute force attack is the attempt to use every valid character one by one, in every combination, to open the database file -- until the correct combination actually opens the file. The correct combination of characters is, of course, the password. It can take a very long time to guess the password this way, but many password recovery software vendors claim that it usually only takes a few seconds to find the password, but the worst case scenario would take more than eight days with one of the fastest computers currently on the market. Bear in mind when using a brute force attack that the computer must be left running until the password is eventually "guessed." How long can you expect this to be? Depending upon your keyboard, there are probably 84 possible values (upper and lower case letters of the alphabet, numbers, 17 valid keys on the keyboard, and five accented letters) for each character in the password. If a password contains only four characters, then there are 84 4 (or 49,787,136) possible combinations. If a password contains only six characters, then there are 84 6 (or about 351,300,000,000) possible combinations. If a password contains only eight characters, then there are 84 8 (or about 2,478,800,000,000,000) possible combinations. One vendor claims a speed of "up to 140,000+ passwords every single second, ... quadruple the speed of [their] more expensive competitors" for their password recovery tool's 5.8 million word dictionary attack and a speed of 50,000+ passwords per second for their brute force attack, while other vendors claim that their password recovery products "... work instantly! ... 5 days is not much at all." At a rate of 140,000 passwords per second to try the first 5.8 million words in their dictionary, and then 50,000 passwords per second thereafter, it would take 15.4 minutes to check all possible passwords with only four characters, 81.3 days to check all possible passwords with only six characters and 1,571 years to check all possible passwords with only eight characters. Granted, it's extremely rare to have to check all possible combinations, but the average would be nearly eight minutes to guess the password with four characters, 40.6 days to guess the password with six characters and more than 785 years to guess the password with eight characters. For this reason, computer security experts recommend passwords with at least eight or nine characters. Also bear in mind that if you do not have the fastest computer on the market, it will take longer to attempt all possible combinations of characters before the password is finally guessed using the brute force technique. We do not recommend this method for finding the password, either. Q: How long does it take to find the password using your tools? A: Only as long as it takes to point to your database file on the computer using the Windows "Open File" dialog window, click the "Open" button and read the password on the screen: less than two seconds. It only takes a tiny fraction of a second to actually decrypt the password and display it on the monitor. Q: Do you guarantee that you'll find the password? A: Unless the database file has been encrypted using a non-Microsoft Access encryption method or is corrupted beyond repair, as when the database file is opened and saved in Microsoft Word (and we know the symptoms when this has happened), then we can recover the password for you. We guarantee it. But even a corrupted database file is not as high of a hurdle as it may sound. We have an outstanding record of recovering and restoring corrupted database files.
Converting a Microsoft Access MDE file back into an MDB fileQ: I've heard that it's impossible to convert an Access MDE file back into an Access MDB file, yet you claim that you can do it. How can you do what others can't? A: Converting an Access MDE file back into an MDB file is very difficult, but not impossible. The structures for the database and the database objects are still inside the MDE file, even after the human-readable code has been stripped out during conversion to the MDE file format. That's why an MDE file functions much the same as the original MDB file that it was created from. Our top-notch experts at Q-Built Solutions have built a tool to examine and extract the database structural information from these MDE files. This tool creates a new MDB file and places a copy of this structural information and a copy of all of the data into the new MDB file. Therefore, your data in the MDE file will not be changed during the conversion to the new MDB file, nor will the structures of your tables, queries, forms, reports or macros. Q: But the source code has been stripped out of the compiled MDE version. Do you use an MDE decompiler to restore the original source code? A: No. To our knowledge, no one has developed an MDE decompiler, probably because there's not enough of a commercial demand to make a profit on such a time-consuming endeavor. And the resulting source code would likely be a classic example of "How To Write Unmaintainable Code," so the value of the decompiled source code would be diminished by the cost required to bring the code up to the programming standards necessary to keep costs and schedules of any future code changes reasonable. Q: If all you have is the MDE file, then how do you restore the source code from the original file for the new MDB file when the original MDB file has been lost? A: Unfortunately, the original human-readable source code is gone. The MDE file contains none of it. That's probably why you've heard that it's impossible to convert an MDE file back into an MDB file. However, while the source code has been removed, the machine instructions produced when the original source code was tokenized and compiled into P-code remain within the MDE file. This compiled P-code provides clues about the original source code, like the footprints an animal leaves when it walks across the ground. Anyone can look at a lion's footprints and say, "He went thataway," whereas an expert tracker can look at the footprints and say, "Actually, 'he' is a she, and she's got two eight-month-old cubs with her. She's at least six years old and weighs nearly 300 pounds. She passed by here about three hours ago. We'll catch up to her in less time than that, because one of the cubs has an injury to its left hind leg and is limping. Besides, they haven't eaten in three days, and they're hungry, so the mother will want to stop to hunt. Have your weapons ready when we get there, so that we aren't on the menu." Obviously, the expert tracker can read far more than just the lion's footprints, just as our Q-Built Solutions database experts can read far more than just compiled P-code from an MDE file. Our experts are experienced in building highly customized database applications and have provided "fix-its" for or redesigned many hundreds of database applications. While every database application is unique, most have many common components. These common components can be quickly restored by our experts, while the components that make your database application unique will take a little more time to restore. Q: Will the restored source code be exactly like the original source code that we paid our developer for? For example, will the variable names and procedure names be identical? A: The restored source code will not be identical to the original, line-for-line. The restored source code will have the same functionality as the original source code, and will be either more efficient in speed and use of system resources, or just as efficient as the original source code, but not less. This efficiency improvement depends upon how efficient the original source code was. Some things can be improved upon, while others cannot. Some of the variable names and procedure names will be identical to the originals, but most will not be. The variable names and procedure names in the new MDB file that will be identical to the originals are the ones that your developer designed to be called externally from the database object that contains these variables and procedures or called externally from the database application itself. The compiled P-code provides clues to these procedure names, parameter names, and parameter data types that our experts can restore in the new MDB file. The variable names and procedure names in the new MDB file that are not identical to the originals will replace the variables and procedures that were designed by your developer to be defined and used internally. As long as these variables and procedures in the new MDB file have the same functionality and are used for the same effects as the originals, then it's not necessary to know or use the names of the original, internally defined ones. These new variables and procedures in the new MDB file will have meaningful names for easier programming maintenance, such as EditInvoice_Click( ), not something like Command42_Click( ). However, if you have documentation that specifically names variables and procedures, such as CustomerInvoice_Click( ) for the above example, please let us know and we will be very happy to make these variables and procedure names match your existing documentation exactly. Q: Can you restore the comments from the original code, too? A: No. The original comments cannot be recovered, but will be completely replaced with new, informative comments to document the restored code. However, our experience has been that most Access developers put few comments in their code while developing applications. We believe in well-commented code so that future code changes can be made faster and easier. So your new MDB file will likely have from twice as many to 10 times as many informative comments to document your new source code as the original source code had. Q: Are there any restrictions? A: We have the following legal and ethical restrictions:
1.) Deleting computer files or otherwise preventing the lawful owner from accessing these files (such as protecting the files with a password and withholding the password) is a criminal act, and should be handled according to law. 2.) Developers take great pride in their work and would rarely allow their work to be destroyed without keeping a personal copy. If the disgruntled employee was the developer, then threatening legal actions may be enough to compel the developer to hand over the copy. 3.) We do not wish to follow in the footsteps of a disgruntled employee. A: For the best chances of success, the MDE file must be uncorrupted, unencrypted, and fully functional, and all necessary user-defined libraries and nonstandard libraries used by this MDE file need to be made available to our database experts. If this MDE file is used as a library database, then any database applications that reference it also need to be made available to our experts. If the MDE file has been secured using user-level security, then the Access workgroup file also needs to be made available for our experts. Otherwise, it may take longer to convert the MDE file. Due to the design of the internal storage format of database objects in Access 2000 and later versions, the structures of forms and reports are more difficult to restore and more susceptible to corruption than are the structures for forms and reports in Access 95 and 97 versions. It will usually take longer to convert the MDE file into an MDB file for Access 2000 and newer versions than it will for Access 95 and 97 files. While still cheaper to convert an Access 2000 or newer MDE file than to recreate it from scratch, the cost savings isn't nearly as significant as with restoring Access 95 and Access 97 MDE files. Our database experts are currently working on tools to improve the conversion time for Access 2000 and newer MDE files, but until these tools are ready, we are accepting Access 2000 and newer MDE files for conversion on a case-by-case basis. Q: How much does it cost to convert an MDE file back into an MDB file, and how long does it take? A: Converting an MDE file back into an MDB file is not cheap. The cost and amount of time for the conversion depend upon the complexity of the database application and any roadblocks involved. The more complex the application, the more time it takes to convert, and therefore, the more it will cost. Corrupted files and missing libraries or other files will also add to the amount of time to convert the MDE file back into an MDB file. We provide a free estimate of the time and cost of converting your MDE file back into an MDB file. We guarantee our work. If we cannot restore your MDE file, then you pay nothing. Prices start at $400 and rise according to how many hours it takes to convert the MDE file. For example, an MDE file with a switchboard and four forms, a few subforms and five reports with only 200 lines of source code to restore could take more than an hour to analyze, convert into an MDB file and test. (Yes. We always test our work to ensure full functionality and best results for our customers.) Another MDE file with five forms and five reports and a few custom CommandBars, but which accommodates 30 users with different requirements for inputs and outputs, connects to numerous and varied IBM mainframe computers, Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server databases and Excel spreadsheets across the enterprise, converts source data formats to specially defined targets and their formats, provides a long list of custom features and requires more than 5,000 lines of source code to restore could take 10 business days or more to convert into an MDB file and finish testing. It's usually much cheaper and faster to convert the MDE file back into an MDB file than to recreate the database application from scratch, but obviously, the cheapest solution is to make daily backups of all database files and to keep a copy of these backups off site. We encourage all of our customers to make frequent backups so that they never need our database recovery services, because it's far better to have customers who are very pleased with our work than to have customers who are desperate for our services. Q: What's your success rate for converting MDE files back into MDB files? A: Our success rate for converting Access 97 MDE files is 100%. Our success rate for Access 2000 and newer versions is 85%. On the few failures we've had, the MDE files were corrupted, and the cost to restore the few corrupted forms and their associated modules exceeded the value of these rarely used forms. Given enough time, we would have converted these database objects, too, but we would rather our customers had the best value for their money. Compare our success rate with the other experts who claim that it's impossible to convert MDE files back into MDB files. Their success rate is 0%. Q: What does Q-Built Solutions need to provide the free time and cost estimate for converting the MDE file? A: To receive your free cost and time estimate for your MDE file conversion, we will need the following: 1. Proof that you are the lawful owner of the MDE database file or are authorized by the lawful owner to have this MDE file converted into an MDB file. All written documentation must be written in the English language. This proof may consist of any of the following: A. A copy of the formal written contract between the Microsoft Access developer and you (or your company) which records the database application description or requirements and your name (or your company's name and a supporting legal document signifying your company's authorization for you to control this database); or B. A copy of the receipt of payment for the development of the Microsoft Access database application, which also describes the application, not merely the database application file name, and includes your name (or your company's name and a supporting legal document signifying your company's authorization for you to control this database); or C. Legal documentation affirming that you are the developer and owner of the Microsoft Access database application; or D. Other legal documentation may be sufficient and will be examined on a case-by-case basis. Please contact us if you have other circumstances that you would like for us to consider. 2. If the MDE file is copyrighted, then please provide proof that you are the lawful owner of the copyright or are authorized by the lawful owner of the copyright to have this MDE file converted into an MDB file. All written documentation must be written in the English language. This proof may consist of any of the following: A. A copy of the official documentation granting you a copyright on this MDE file; or B. A link to the URL of the Web page for the Copyright Office's listing of your copyright of this MDE file. C. Other legal documentation may be sufficient and will be examined on a case-by-case basis. Please contact us if you have other circumstances that you would like for us to consider. 3. A copy of your MDE database file that you wish to convert. File size limitations and alternate delivery methods for this file are listed in the "How can I send you my files?" section below. 4. Any relevant files, such as database back-ends (which contain tables that the front-end application links to), library files, workgroup information files (*.MDW files for Microsoft Access user-level security), and database application input/output files (such as Microsoft Excel spreadsheets). 5. Any database application development life cycle documentation, such as application requirements and specifications, developer's notes, database administrator's schema diagrams, use cases, et cetera. 6. The version of Microsoft Access you would like the MDE file to be converted into. For example, we can take an Access 97 MDE file and convert it into an Access 97 MDB file, an Access 2003 MDB file, or even an Access 2000 MDB file, which can be opened in Access 2000, 2002 and 2003 versions. 7. A list of problems (if any) that you are having when opening or using the MDE database file, and your decisions about whether you would like us to fix these problems while converting the MDE file into an MDB file. For example, some of the functionality may not be working properly due to a "hard-coded" path in the source code and will need to be changed to your new network path when our database experts write the new source code (or better yet, this information may be stored in a database table where it can easily be retrieved or changed as needed). Other times, a database application "almost works" correctly and just needs an adjustment or some additional code to be added in order to function properly. Our database experts can easily provide these "fix-its" or other application customization for your new database file. Please let us know. 8. Any other relevant information that may help shorten the time it takes to convert your MDE file into an MDB file, such as earlier versions of the original MDB file before it was compiled into an MDE file. File size limitations and alternate delivery methods for these additional files are the same as the MDE file and are listed in the "How can I send you my files?" section below. If you choose to use our services for converting your MDE file into an MDB file after you receive our free cost and time estimate, then we will need to ensure that you are aware of United States export laws. We will send you a form that you must sign and return to us before we commence work on the project.
Q: How can I send you my files? A: After you have made a copy of the database file, please compact this copy to make the file as small as possible and then compress this copy using a file compression utility, such as WinZip, PKZip, or Windows XP's built-in zip utility. If the size of this zipped file is less than 10 MB and you do not require encryption to safeguard the E-mail, then you may attach the zipped file to an E-mail and send it to us at our E-mail address listed below. If the zipped file is more than 10 MB, then you have a few options: delete records in tables to cut down the size of the file (this option is only for MDE files that need to be converted to MDB files), span multiple zipped files (each up to 10 MB), or send us a copy of the database file on electronic media by mail or other courier delivery service. (Sending the file to us on electronic media via mail service or courier is more secure than E-mailing the file directly to us, so this last option may possibly be the only option you desire.) Determine whether deleting some or most of the records in the tables in the MDE file will be sufficient after database compaction to squeeze down into a zipped file of less than 10 MB. (Please leave at least a few representative records in each of the tables so that our database experts can see how the functioning database application "should" function.) If the zipped file is still larger than 10 MB, then you may be able to use the compression utility to span multiple files and then attach each of these "spanned" zipped files to an E-mail and send each file to us at our E-mail address listed below. If you use this method, please contact us first to ensure that we have compatible software that will reconstruct the spanned zipped files into a single database file. Our E-mail mailbox can accommodate up to 50 MB, so no more than five of these spanned zipped files may be sent at a time, but we can download the first 50 MB of E-mail messages, and you can then send additional E-mails with attached zipped files up to 10 MB each as necessary. You may also put a copy of the MDE file on electronic media and send the package to us via mail service or courier delivery service. We accept CD's, DVD's, and 3 1/2 inch floppy disks (1.44 MB capacity or less). We accept package deliveries Monday through Saturday (except U.S. Federal holidays) at our address listed below. Please check to ensure that all files that you send to us are virus-free and worm-free and do not contain any malicious code. We will ensure the same for you.
Q: We need a database solution, but we don't have Microsoft Access installed on our computers. It's too expensive to purchase a license for each computer. Can you create a database solution for us where we don't have to buy a separate license for each computer? A: Yes! If your computers don't have Microsoft Access already installed, then we can build a Microsoft Access database application for you and package it with the Microsoft Access Runtime version. This complete package can be installed on all of your computers, and you pay only for our time to develop and package your application. It takes time to package the database application with the Runtime version, but you don't pay a cent for Microsoft Access! The Runtime version of Microsoft Access is free to Q-Built Solutions' customers who purchase a custom database application! To install the latest version of Microsoft Office Access 2003, your computer must have either the Microsoft Windows 2000 (with SP-3) or the Microsoft Windows XP operating system installed. If your computers have earlier versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems installed, then an earlier version of the Microsoft Access Runtime can be installed on your computers, either Access 2000 or Access 2002. These Runtime versions are free to Q-Built Solutions' customers who purchase a custom database application, too!
If you have any further questions about our products or database consulting services, please contact us. Q-Built Solutions (805) 241 – 4887 E-mail Address: Messages@QBuilt.com
Copyright © 2004 - 2006 Q-Built Solutions. All rights reserved.
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