Thread help

[Oliver1]

Okay I have the folowing code.

Private Sub Timer1_Elapsed(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.Timers.ElapsedEventArgs) Handles Timer1.Elapsed
        mescounter = mescounter + 1
 
        Me.txtmescount.Text = 60 - mescounter
 
        If mescounter = 60 Then
 
 
            processall() ' process all waiting message and e-mails
            mescounter = 0
 
 
        End If
 
        If doweb Then
 
            If curday <> 1 And curday <> 7 Then
                If curhour > 7 And curhour < 18 Then
                    webcounter = webcounter + 1
 
                    Me.txtwebcount.Text = 60 - webcounter
                    If webcounter = 60 Then
 
                        processweb() ' exports call data to website
 
                        webcounter = 0
                    End If
                Else
                    webcounter = webcounter + 1
                    If webcounter = 60 Then
                        webcounter = 0
                    End If
                    Me.txtwebcount.Text = "Paused OOH"
                End If
            Else
                webcounter = webcounter + 1
                If webcounter = 60 Then
                    webcounter = 0
                End If
                Me.txtwebcount.Text = "Paused W/E"
            End If
 
 
        End If
 
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub processweb()
        If processingweb = False Then
            processingweb = True
 
            Me.Pbweb.Value = 10
            Me.txtwebcall.Text = CStr(CLng(Me.txtwebcall.Text) + upwebsite.getupcalldata())
            Me.Pbweb.Value = 20
            Me.txtwebcomp.Text = CStr(CLng(Me.txtwebcomp.Text) + upwebsite.getupcompdata())
            Me.Pbweb.Value = 50
            Me.txtwebemp.Text = CStr(CLng(Me.txtwebemp.Text) + upwebsite.getupempdata())
            Me.Pbweb.Value = 70
            Me.txtwebcon.Text = CStr(CLng(Me.txtwebcon.Text) + upwebsite.getupcondata())
 
            Me.Pbweb.Value = 90
            Me.txtremwebemp.Text = CStr(CLng(Me.txtremwebemp.Text) + upwebsite.getwebchanges())
 
            Me.Pbweb.Value = 100
            Me.Pbweb.Value = 0
 
            processingweb = False
        End If
     
 
    End Sub

Now my problem is that the processweb() sub can sometimes freeze for minutes on end if our Internet conection is down or running very slowly, currently when this happens the other sub processall() doesn't get run. I'm assuming the whole application is locking up until the processweb() task completes.
To solve this problem would you use threads? and how easy would it be to convert the above to threading, basically I know nothing about threading or even if this is what I need, so perhaps some general pointers would be useful.

[jmcilhinney]

It is presumably your calls to members of upwebsite that are holding things up. What do they look like? Can you implement some sort of timeout to cancel them if they take too long?

[Oliver1]

Each one selects some local data, and then updates or inserts this to a remote mysql database, the procedure is hanging on the updating of the remote mysql database, this update normally runs fine but if someone else here is hitting our internet connection hard then this update procedure starts running like an asthmatic slug.

My question is more about how I handle this situation, I would still like this update to run but more as a background process, which is why I assume I have to use threads.
My problem being is that I get the feeling that threads can be quite difficult to use and you can end up with unexpected consequences.

Okay question 1.
Should I use threads in this situation and if not what should I use?

Question 2
If using threads do I have to worry about casusing the sun to explode or more sensibly do I have to worry about things going wierdly wrong?

Question 3
By how many goals do you belive England will win by on Saturday?

[jmcilhinney]

A single thread can only perform a single task at any one time. If one of your tasks can take a long time and is preventing your main thread from performing other tasks then multi-threading is probably a good option. You haven't specified your version (please do so in future) but if you're suing VB 2005 then the BackgroundWorker class makes your job easier. I suggest that you follow the Articles -> Advanced .NET link in my signature and read the Managed Threading section. If you're using .NET 1.x then it won't all be relevant but most of it will.

[Oliver1]

Oh sorry am using vb 2003.

Okay had a little read off all that boring thread stuff, then reverted to the method that mankind has been using for millenia.
Give it a go without any understanding of the consequences.
So using the above theory have come up with this, which seems to work.

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
 
   t = New Thread(AddressOf processweb)
            t.IsBackground = True
            t.Start()
 
End Sub
 
 
 Private Sub processweb()
        Do
            startwebcount = True
            Me.txtwebcount.Text = 30
            Thread.Sleep(30000)
            startwebcount = False
            If doweb = True Then
                Me.Pbweb.Value = 10
                Me.txtwebcall.Text = CStr(CLng(Me.txtwebcall.Text) + upwebsite.getupcalldata())
                Thread.Sleep(0)
                Me.Pbweb.Value = 20
                Me.txtwebcomp.Text = CStr(CLng(Me.txtwebcomp.Text) + upwebsite.getupcompdata())
                Thread.Sleep(0)
                Me.Pbweb.Value = 50
                Me.txtwebemp.Text = CStr(CLng(Me.txtwebemp.Text) + upwebsite.getupempdata())
                Thread.Sleep(0)
                Me.Pbweb.Value = 70
                Me.txtwebcon.Text = CStr(CLng(Me.txtwebcon.Text) + upwebsite.getupcondata())
                Thread.Sleep(0)
                Me.Pbweb.Value = 90
                Me.txtremwebemp.Text = CStr(CLng(Me.txtremwebemp.Text) + upwebsite.getwebchanges())
                Me.Pbweb.Value = 100
                Me.Pbweb.Value = 0
            End If
 
        Loop
    End Sub

As I say this seems to work, but who knows, not me as reading stuff hurts my head, so if anyone wiser and more literate than me could confirm or deny if the above makes sense.
Cheers