Access over VPN

Hi aijmexico,

Can we get a little bit more information? How big of a database it is? How many users are accessing it concurrently? When you are using the VPN connection, are you accessing the VPN via a wireless connection?

Thanks for the additional information. I am by no means a guru, but I've had a bit of experience with Access (including over a VPN).

Datebase is 10GB Users Accessing 3 -- 1 is local and the other 2 VIA VPN When using VPN its VIA a lab connection over the net using the VPN

10GB is  quite large for an Access database. I am quite surprised it works at all for you. We've had problems in our department with a 400MB database.

Personally, I'd suggest splitting the database into smaller databases if at all possible. You can still run queries to pull from multiple databases by using linked tables. That is how we're handling our similar problem now. There isn't really a good way for me to explain how to actually split your database...that kind of needs to be to your team, but I hope things work out for you.

Don't split the database.  Use your VPN to establish your secure connection and then use Remote Desktop or VNC or any other program like that to establish a remote session on a locally attached network computer.  

The problem is that you are trying to haul 10GB across your VPN.  The suggested method above will only pass the screen image across the VPN and the application runs locally on the network attached computer.  You will be much happier with the performance.

@pcurtis expert   That is a brilliant idea, but not always practical because then you need a physical/virtual install of Windows for each user to connect to over remote desktop/VNC.

@xxdesmus - Using Citrix or Terminal Services, you need one physical machine.  The remote users, using ICA client for Citrix or RDP for Terminal Services, would get sessions on the physical machine.

Terminal Services is the low cost option.  Citrix is the preferred option.  They both work.

IMO, trying to run that large of an Access database over a VPN is asking for corruption issues.  The question is, "What's the data worth?"  Is it more or less than the cost of implementing my recommended solution.

Another program which is worth investigating is called winconnect, which allows multiple users to connect to one pc simultaneously using RDP. Either with or without VPN. The real question regarding access databases is how do you make access not send the entire database over the WAN everytime you open it. The answer would lie in converting it to an SQL based mode, and forms cannot be set to return the entire results of a large table. Instead you would query the database and it would in turn send back results, perhaps only 10 at a time. RDP is the 'easier' option, without rewriting a database.