Requirements for Access 2003 over remote connection

[Julia Boswell]

Folks,

I've tried searching various sites and can't find anything on this topic, so
apologies if this is a duplicate...........

Anyway I have an Access 2003 db on a Windows 2000 network. Only 3 users
currently access it, so it hasn't been split. It's got quite a lot of code
in it, particularly on a couple of unbound forms where a user presses an
Enter button and several tables are searched, updated as necessary and
reports then run. It works fine.

I've had a request from a couple of offsite users to access the db via a
remote connection and I want to know if there are any minimum connection
speed requirements, e.g. is a 56K modem connection OK (I doubt it) or do the
users have to have a minimum of 512k broadband connection (or more)?

I've checked out their pc specs and they meet those specified by Microsoft.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Julia

 

[Kevin3NF]

Do Not run Access over a WAN. It will almost certainly corrupt.

Set up a Terminal Server, or remote desktop connection for those users to a
dedicated machine that has the FE on it (you are going to split it, right?),
and the only delay Access will see is in the LAN.

A WAN is way slower than the LAN, and far less stable. I use the TS setup
and it works like a champ.

--
Kevin Hill
President
3NF Consulting

www.3nf-inc.com/NewsGroups.htm

 

[Julia Boswell]

Thanks for this. I didn't know whether I'd need to split it or not, hence
the question. Currently it's not split as there are only 3 users using it
over a LAN. I guess I will need to split it from what you are saying then?

I can plan to do the split no problems. If the db is split, does the remote
connection speed make any difference then?

Julia

 

[Kevin3NF]

Any database with two or more users should be split, with the FE on the
user's desktop. In the case of a TS setup, each user should have a copy on
the desktop of his/her profile (Documents and settings). The whole idea is
to have no two users using the same file (FE).

TS works by basicaly sending screenshots to the remote users in very rapid
succession (if I remember correctly). Remote connection does matter, but
not to Access.

--
Kevin Hill
President
3NF Consulting

www.3nf-inc.com/NewsGroups.htm

 

[Julia Boswell]

OK, thanks.

Any database with two or more users should be split, with the FE on the
user's desktop. In the case of a TS setup, each user should have a copy on
the desktop of his/her profile (Documents and settings). The whole idea is
to have no two users using the same file (FE).

TS works by basicaly sending screenshots to the remote users in very rapid
succession (if I remember correctly). Remote connection does matter, but
not to Access.

--
Kevin Hill
President
3NF Consulting

www.3nf-inc.com/NewsGroups.htm

presses via or

 

[Larry Linson]

Just splitting the database into front-end and back-end isn't enough to make
it work across a WAN, because Jet is a file-server database that uses the
remote tables database just as though it were on a folder on a local hard
drive.

If you only have a few concurrent users (say, up to 15, 20, or 30), chances
are good that you can create an Access client application that can work via
a WAN using the free MSDE database engine (desktop edition of MS SQL
Server -- with deliberate delays inserted whem more than 5 "batch processes"
are running internal to SQL Server) and size limited to 2 GB.

If these users are part of, or eligible to be users of, an intranet in the
company, then you could consider a web-based database application instead of
client-server. That'd be more work, because you are unlikely to be able to
convert what you've done, and would have to reimplement it.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP