Using Access file as a Gateway?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Terry Olsen
  • Start date Start date
T

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.
 
Terry Olsen said:
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.
Click to expand...

Why was this "less than reliable."?

Tony
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I have an app that uses an MDB file as it's database. I want to run the
Why was this "less than reliable."?
Click to expand...

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.
 
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
 
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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)
 
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