Data not being renewed

[cregy]

Hi All

Never used access in my life and totally at a loss to understand what is going on. Before installing a copy of Access and seeing if I can find out what is happening I am hoping you can help!

Two computers networked together, sharing an access database. They only have copies of Access 2003 - no network installation. The data is upgraded on computer one but when computer two looks at the data it is old data. Computer two as far as I am aware is unable to update the database.

Any ideas what might be going wrong please? Is there some sort of caching system involved please? Should we be running a network installation of access?

Etc..

Thanks

Rich

 

[Dennisk]

is there only ONE copy of the database on a shared folder on the network?

 

[boblarson]

If there is one database on one computer and the other computer is trying to access the same file on the other computer, you probably are looking at a permissions issue on the file folder/file.

 

[cregy]

One Database

Hi Guys

There is only one database on one computer and it is accessed by the other computer.

The weird thing though is that it has been working for the last 8 months or so and has only stopped working recently.

Trouble is with no knowledge I am shooting blind. I have to admit that I am hoping we can stick it on mysql and connect with php!

Thanks for the help though.

Rich

 

[neileg]

Something must have changed and I suspect that it will be a permissions issue as Bob says.

On the other hand, Access is sensitive to having a permanent network connection. Is it possible that the connection is intermittent?

 

[cregy]

Permissions

Hi All

Yes you were right it is a permissions problem. In fact it has shown how poorly the network has been built in the first place.

However, having now set the network permissions correctly, I am left with another problem.
Comp one - Is where the database resides
Comp Two - Is the networked computer that connects to said database.

If comp one connects to the database first, it locks comp one out. If comp two connects then comp one, both stay connected and both can change records, even the same record.

Is this usual behaviour please? Should I be setting something else correctly? Is there a way to allow comp two to connect even if comp one connects first please?

Thanks.

Rich

 

[boblarson]

On the one which opens it exclusively, Open Access and go to Tools > Options > Advanced and make sure that under Default Open that Open Shared is checked and not Open Exclusively.

 

[cregy]

Shared Databases

Hi

Checked those options and the default mode was set to open.

Rich

 

[The_Doc_Man]

There is a further problem that folks don't always catch. Including me...

There are TWO sets of permissions. When you work with tables, queries, etc. inside the database, Access itself maintains those permissions. But we cannot forget Windows, which has this bizarre little idea that it should stick in its two cents' worth now and then.

If the file permissions on the shared folder are wrong AS A SHARE (i.e. network path) then it is very possible that you are still facing permissions. The rule for Windows permissions is that you take the local folder permissions and MINIMIZE them against the SHARE (i.e. networked) permissions. That is to say, if a folder has two sets of local access permissions and it happens that both of them apply at the same time, you ADD (MAXIMIZE) the local permissions. BUT if there is a SHARE declaration, it will have its own set of permissions - far less granular than one might like - and for the share, your permissions MINIMIZE (SUBTRACT to leave lowest permissions in common).

You might look at that issue. Because it is a well-known problem that when you don't have "gross level" MODIFY permissions, databases open exclusively because of the inability to open the LDB file correctly. In order to protect the file, WINDOWS (not ACCESS) takes out stronger locks than necessary and there you go, Open Exclusive whether you wanted it or not.

It has been a while since I taught the course, but I believe you will have to set up the SHARE permissions as FULL CONTROL and then let the local permissions filter them down a bit. In other words, basically toss out the baby with the bathwater for network permissions and rely on minimizing against the local permissions to control things.

Oh, by the way - SHARE permissions work whether you are using a DOMAIN structure or a WORKGROUP (network) structure.

 

[cregy]

Permissions

Hi Doc Man

Thanks for the detailed reply. I must admit to not understanding even more now why folks use windows.... I really will be trying to move the network across to Linux!

Love the tagline by the way - most excellent.

Once again my thanks.

Rich