How many users can an Access db handle?

[82412]

I'm responsible for an Access 2000 database which three people have open more or less constantly and another four open from time to time.

The database is on a P2P network and is split, with the back end in a single location. The network is wireless.

At the moment there are no problems with this setup but changes are being contemplated which will mean that eight people will have the database open constantly with another four using it occasionally.

For other reasons ( There were only three other wireless networks within range when we started, now there are eight), we are switching the network from wireless to cable. The back end will be transferred to a new PC with a powerful processor and loads of memory.

Does anyone have experience of allowing that many users to log on at the same time in a P2P network? And was the experience good or bad?

 

[boblarson]

you shouldn't have a problem with ~10 users IF, and this is a big IF, your users each have their OWN copy of the frontend on their machine. But, also - Access is NOT stable in a wireless environment. If a user has the database open on their machine and the network connection is dropped, no matter how briefly, it can corrupt the user's frontend, and even possible to corrupt the backend.

As for how many users Access will handle - the help file says Access can handle 255 concurrent users, but I understand that there is serious degradation after about 5-10. It really all depends on your design and how you are flowing data.

 

[GaryPanic]

first hand expereince
I used to work ona d/b that had
15 high end users and 8 low end viewers no problem - however this was on "network"

The It guru there said anything above 30 persons was pushing it ...
but it did depended on the make up of users
users and viewer

 

[82412]

That all sounds fairly encouraging - the users do all have their own copy of the front end, and as I said we're abandoning the wireless network in favour of cabling. Thanks for the replies.

 

[Simon_MT]

I know someone with 150 users using Access. We have about 25 - 6 using a Terminal Server over VPN tunnels; and two sites using wireless. Personally, I think it is a misnomer that Access will break as soon as 10 users are on board. The only way I have managed to crash Access is with a huge jpeg images.

The main considerations are having a squeaky clean environment from server down, efficient broadband services if using remote connections and on the PC front, optimising Run registry entries etc.

On the Wireless front whilst I use it I don't think it is really Butch enough and I prefer a wired solution instead.

Simon

 

[Bee]

I think it also depends on what table is being accessed at any one time. Access will lock records while being updated and that usually slows DB performance. You can have 10 users using the system but each are accessing different tables of the DB and that's fine; however, if some of them were trying to update the same table, then they will notice that speed becomes a real issue.

 

[Simon_MT]

Each of our users uses a Menu which in turn is bound to one table and most 20 users sit on just one record, 3 to another record. Admittedly they are only reading the record so you don't get conflicts.

Accessing 100s of thousands of records or having blobs within the database would put pressure on a database. If your database is producing transactional records then locking is not such an issue as only one user should be able to create specific records although the master records might be affected depending on how you process information.

Simon