BE/FE, which do I secure?

[David Portwood]

I am cautiously stepping up to the plate for splitting my database. So I'm
going to end up with a FrontEnd .mdb and a BackEnd.mdb. The FE's will be
distributed to each user's local drive (not sure how that works - I would
have thought I couldn't access another user's local drive) and the BE will
be on a shared network drive. I am creating workgroups now (or will be very
shortly). Which .mdb do I secure? I suppose it must the BE, right? But what
about all the FE's?

 

[Arvin Meyer [MVP]]

I am cautiously stepping up to the plate for splitting my database. So I'm
going to end up with a FrontEnd .mdb and a BackEnd.mdb. The FE's will be
distributed to each user's local drive (not sure how that works - I would
have thought I couldn't access another user's local drive) and the BE will
be on a shared network drive. I am creating workgroups now (or will be very
shortly). Which .mdb do I secure? I suppose it must the BE, right? But what
about all the FE's?

Some folks only secure the front-end and rely on the server to security the
data. Others secure both and allow access to data only through OWNERACCESS
OPTION queries. Read the following for good security advice:

Security FAQ
http://support.microsoft.com/download/support/mslfiles/SECFAQ.EXE

Lynn Trapp's summarization:
http://www.ltcomputerdesigns.com/The10Steps.htm

KB articles:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q165009
http://download.microsoft.com/download/access97/faq1/1/win98/en-us/secfaq.exe
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=325261

Joan Wild's articles:
http://www.jmwild.com/security02.htm
http://www.jmwild.com/security97.htm
http://www.jmwild.com/SecureNoLogin.htm
http://www.jmwild.com/Unsecure.htm