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MS Access back-end sharing options

I have an MS Access application running on the desktop (with FE & BE), and want to provide multi-user sharing capabilities of the back end. I've tried SharePoint, but struggled to get it to work. Also, it looks like there is a performance penalty with S.P.

Please suggest a simple solution which would (typically) involve using a web-based host (intranet is not an option).

Thanks,
Mitch

Dale Fye

Where are your users? If they are all local (LAN) or if not local and on a "VERY FAST WAN", then you should put the backend on a network server and update the links from the front-end to the back-end. I would recommend using the fully qualified network path for the links rather than using a mapped drive because all your users may not have the same drive mappings.

Once you have relinked the tables to the back-end, then distribute the front-end to each of your users so that they have their own personal copy on their computer. DO NOT attempt to share the front-end on a server.

Mitch Schwartz

ASKER

Users are not local. All I want to share is the back end. Each user has a local copy of the front end.

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Scott McDaniel (EE MVE )

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Dale Fye

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Mitch Schwartz

ASKER

Thank you both for your comments. Sharepoint performance is an issue, even with a relatively small DB. Converting it to a web app is not an option, since the FE is loaded with VBA.

I wondered about RDS or Citrix, but did not know they are costly & complicated to setup. Sounds like those are not an option.

The eqldata.com option sounds intriguing, and I plan to explore it. Scott, can you direct me to evaluations and/or reviews of it?

Jim Dettman (EE MVE)

FYI I posted about www.eqldata.com in another question and the poster responded that it appears they had gone out of business as of 2011. I can't believe that because we've been pointing people there for a while and no one ever came back and said they had an issue.

The web site is also still there, but he said he could not get a hold of anyone.

<<I wondered about RDS or Citrix, but did not know they are costly & complicated to setup. Sounds like those are not an option.>>

It's not all that costly; hardware is cheap and the license for Windows 2008 / 2008 R2 is fairly cheap as well. I would think you could be up and running for $2-3K. In comparison to other things, that's not all that expensive.

Jim.

Mitch Schwartz

ASKER

Thank you all for your comments. Based on them, I've decided to look seriously into Citrix (via a web hosting service). eqldata.com does not appear to be operational, as their website hasn't been updated since 2009, and their "download" button goes to a dead end.