location of .mdw for shared database on LAN??

[Helen]

Hi everyone,

I've scoured this newsgroup and read extensively at all of the links to info
(many thanks to Joan, Tony and others for sharing your knowledge and
experience). I'm working in Access 2000 with Win 2000, and have broken the
db into fe/be with be on the server and frontend on each user's PC. I've
done the security thing and everything seems to be working just fine thanks
to all the tips and info I've found here. My only concern is that I've set
the shortcut on each user's machine to point to a copy of the .mdw which
I've created locally, ie. on each user's machine, in the default location
where system.mdw was.

My question is, (having just now read some posts that suggest all users
should be going via the .mdw placed on the server) is how bad is my
situation?? Should I be correcting it as a matter of urgency by altering the
shortcuts for everyone so that they point to the one .mdw on the server? I
originally did this as I thought the performance would be better than if
they were sharing the .mdw as well as the backend...we've had performance
problems. What are the issues?

Many thanks in advance,

Helen

 

[Lynn Trapp]

Helen,
It's not necessarily an urgent situation, but it is something you should
change before you add too many more users and/or groups. If you have the
..mdw file on each PC, then you have to redistribute it every time you add a
new user or group -- especially a new group. Maintenance can be a nightmare
if you have a lot of change in users and groups, when you keep the file on
the individual PC's.

 

[Joan Wild]

In addition to Lynn's comments, keep in mind that user passwords are stored
in the mdw. If you do need to update their copy of the mdw file, you'll
overwrite their password to be whatever it is in your copy.

 

[Helen]

Hi Lynn, Joan,

Thankyou for your replies, yes that all makes sense - I think I nearly
understand security
now!! wow..what a journey. Thanks again for your generosity

best regards,
Helen