it's the standard setup for a multi-user database. the backend database
contains all (or most of) the data tables, and is stored on the server. the
frontend database contains the queries, forms, macros, reports and modules
(and sometimes some "non-updateable" tables, usually that are used to
populate form droplists with standard options). the frontend database is
linked to the tables in the backend db on the server, and then a copy of the
frontend (*not* a shortcut) is placed on each user's PC. so the data is
shared among all the users, while the frontend db copies are used
individually by each user from their hard drive.
this arrangement avoids a lot of the corruption problems you get when two or
more people use the same .mdb file at the same time. and it cuts down on
network line traffic, because everything the database uses in on the local
machine, except for the data itself.
hth