Split Database: Keep Tables in single Access file or multiple files ???

[Will]

OK I'm going to split up my Access application into a Front End and Back
End. Put the Front End with the queries and forms on each clients machine
and put the Back End tables on a peer-to-peer computer in a shared folder
called "Network Drive" so the clients can all get to it.

I have a number of unrelated tables in the database... (I just put 'em all
in the same Access file so I could design a common Form with buttons to
access everything.)

When I split things up should I keep all the tables in a single Access file
on the Server ??

Or should I split the unrelated tables up into multiple Access files on the
Server?

What are the pro's and con's of either way?

(I had thought if two table had nothing to do with each other then the
system may be faster to split the tables into seperate files on the
server... so that users would not all be accessing the same file all the
time... sometimes their data would come from one file... somethimes
another... so there is a level of independance if I split unrelated tables
into seperate files on the server... at least that is what I was thinking...
Is this true?)

Thanks for comments on the best way to do this.

Will

 

[Joseph Meehan]

OK I'm going to split up my Access application into a Front End and
Back End. Put the Front End with the queries and forms on each
clients machine and put the Back End tables on a peer-to-peer
computer in a shared folder called "Network Drive" so the clients can
all get to it.
I have a number of unrelated tables in the database... (I just put
'em all in the same Access file so I could design a common Form with
buttons to access everything.)

When I split things up should I keep all the tables in a single
Access file on the Server ??

Or should I split the unrelated tables up into multiple Access files
on the Server?

If the data will never change and you have no reason to check it or edit
it later, then I would put it on the front ends to reduce the network
traffic. In fact that is the way I have handled it.

 

[Allen Browne]

Using a single back end makes it much easier to reconnect if the file is
moved to a different server or the path/name changed.

Use multiple back ends only if you have a special reason, such as needing to
connect to multiple data sources, or having some very large tables that
would make the database more than 2GB in size.