Split database sharing and remote access?

[Futurehero]

Greetings to you all.
I've just split a database into the front-end and back end components. But I have honestly no idea how to distribute it further.
Additionally, I need people who have the front end to access the database from their homes, not just from work.
What would I need to use?
Is there anything available for free?
Someone suggested using FTP. Would that be a viable option?

 

[Pat Hartman]

To share a database, place the BE on a network share that all users have rights to. Then each user needs his own personal copy of the FE that is loaded on his C: drive. To facilitate updates, you either need to purchase a tool or build your own that distributes a new FE to the users when you make changes so they are always using the latest version.

Including users who are not connected to your LAN is problematic. You can use Terminal Services (Remote Desktop) or Citrix but neither is free. Another option is to convert the BE to SQL Server but this will almost certainly require some application changes if you haven't built it with good client/server techniques. You could use a VPN but it will be very slow if the database BE is Jet/ACE because they send way too much data over the wire. That's why SQL Server is recommended if you want a remote direct connection.

FTP could be used to send people copies of the FE but it won't help you with the sharing problem.

 

[Futurehero]

To share a database, place the BE on a network share that all users have rights to. Then each user needs his own personal copy of the FE that is loaded on his C: drive. To facilitate updates, you either need to purchase a tool or build your own that distributes a new FE to the users when you make changes so they are always using the latest version.

Including users who are not connected to your LAN is problematic. You can use Terminal Services (Remote Desktop) or Citrix but neither is free. Another option is to convert the BE to SQL Server but this will almost certainly require some application changes if you haven't built it with good client/server techniques. You could use a VPN but it will be very slow if the database BE is Jet/ACE because they send way too much data over the wire. That's why SQL Server is recommended if you want a remote direct connection.

FTP could be used to send people copies of the FE but it won't help you with the sharing problem.

Thank you very much for your timely answer.
Currently I'm looking into setting up a VPN.
The issues I currently face are:
-Apparently Windows has a built in function to create a VPN host, but this requires knowledge of port-forwarding , which I don't have.
-OpenVPN looks nice, but it requires an external GUI, which I'd have to install on the server?
-Once this is set up, I've read somewhere that it would look as if the client would posses the shared network folder. Is this true? Or more specifically, once I do set up a VPN, what extra steps would I need to connect the FE to the BE. Just Table Linking?

Thank you in advance for any help.

 

[Pat Hartman]

I don't use VPN's because as I said, they are too slow to be useful and setting one up in most companies would be done by the technical support staff rather than an application developer so I have never set one up.

Citrix is the best solution for external users although it is not a cheap option. Terminal Services is cheaper since you could have the outside workers connect to their office workstations so you wouldn't need a separate server and all that entails. Both Citrix and Terminal Services solutions run on the server/host computer and only send screen shots to the client/remote computer. The client/remote computer only sends keystrokes to the server/host so unlike a VPN, they take very little bandwidth and so are as fast or faster than local LAN connections.