Using Access file as a Gateway?

[Terry Olsen]

I have an app that uses an MDB file as it's database. I want to run the app
on 3 different computers but use the same database. I tried putting the
database on a server share and configuring each app to point to the file,
but found that this is less than reliable.

Since I cannot configure the app to use SQL server, I'm wondering if there's
a way that I could create an MDB "gateway", so to speak, that would pass
everything through to the SQL server (updates, inserts, selects, etc).

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

I have an app that uses an MDB file as it's database. I want to run the app
on 3 different computers but use the same database. I tried putting the
database on a server share and configuring each app to point to the file,
but found that this is less than reliable.

Why was this "less than reliable."?

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
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Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

 

[Terry Olsen]

I have an app that uses an MDB file as it's database. I want to run the

Why was this "less than reliable."?

The computers are laptops with a wireless connection. Sometimes the
connection would be lost while the file was open, locking up the app, and
corrupting the file.

 

[Robert Morley]

Unfortunately, Access really doesn't handle dropped connections very
well...at all! Your best bets are either to switch to a true server-based
solution (SQL Server is probably your best bet, though of course there are
many others), or move to some kind of replicated scenario so that all edits
are made locally and only synchronized on-demand.

The latter won't entirely get rid of the problem, but it should minimize it
significantly. Personally, I'd recommend going with a server-based
solution; replication in Access is a kludge at best, I find.



Rob

 

[David W. Fenton]

The computers are laptops with a wireless connection. Sometimes
the connection would be lost while the file was open, locking up
the app, and corrupting the file.

You can't run and Access/Jet app across a wireless connection.

Windows Terminal Server would be the easiest solution to your
problem.

A harder solution would to upsize the back end to SQL Server 2005
Express. But I wouldn't do that unless I was getting significant
benefits from the SQL back end other than just avoiding the problems
with WiFi.

 

[Guest]

AFAIK, Access/Jet/DAO won't let you link to a linked table.

Will your application let you link to a file DSN? Since a file
DSN and an Access mdb are both files, sometimes applications
automagically allow you to link to a file DSN without noticing.

(david)