Securing Access Database

[chris990]

This is my 2nd thread on the topic...I've searched the forums....

I have a database. It is on the shared folder on the server. I ran the security wizard and created a shortcut. On my machine it works perfectly...asks for a login, has a couple user groups etc...

When I run it off the server though, the shortcut doesn't work....refers to files on my machine?? and the database is unsecured.

Do I have to run the security wizard on every machine? Do I need to run the security wizard from the server? Or do I even need to run the security wizard at all??? My 2-day access course is failing me miserably...

 

[ScottGem]

I believe we have answered this before. Access security is controlled by an MDW file. When Access is installed it creates a System.MDW file on your PC. If you make changes in security without specifying the Workgroup (that's what the W stands for) filem then the security is made in your System.MDW. When you deploy the app, it will look for the users System.MDW which doesn't have the security controls.

What you need to do is create a myapp.MDW and place that in the network folder with the app file. Make your security limits to that file.

 

[ghudson]

The security wizard joined your computer to the new workgroup file. You need to rejoin your computer back to the default System.mdw file and use custom shortcuts to open the secured db with all the right stuff. Search around for this is an old question that has been answered before.

 

[chris990]

I appreciate your responses.

I think I've kind of figured it out but I'm left with one problem. I can open my database with a shortcut using this as my shorcut target,

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\MSACCESS.EXE" "z:\samples\Sample Database\Sample Database New.mdb" /wrkgrp "z:\Samples\Sample Database\Secured.mdw"

The problem is how do I open the database on other machines where the server drive is not Z:? For example, the server machine shared drive is S:, and my supervisors comp is F:, and the sales agent's comp is Y:, etc etc... Is there a way around this or do I have to create a modified shortcut for each? Thanks.

 

[ScottGem]

Use UNC coding rather than drive letters:


\\servername\sharename\path\filename

Also, if you give the MDW file the SAME name as the MDB and put them both in the same folder, I don't think you need to specifically refer to the MDW. This is what I said initially.

 

[accessman2]

I try to use UNC coding

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\Msaccess.exe" "\\Tryserver\Access\db1.mdb" /WRKGRP "\\Tryserver\Access\Secured.mdw"

It doesn't work.
What's wrong with it?
Please let me know, thanks.