I work for an organization with over 20,000 employees and this
organization has mandated the use of Office 97. With the budget
constraints we are facing there is no forseeable upgrade to any later
version of Access.

I have an Access 97 application that performs job estimating and
tracking with input from over 200 employees on their time so that any
one job can be tracked at any given moment. This currently works by
users sending small mdb's with their data to the main database where
the data is then merged. Some of the applications I have also moved
to a file server where the speed is inadequate for remote users.

I want to move this application and others to our intranet and haven't
found much information to help with the following limitations. I
would greatly appreciate any help (Technical or just a direction --
ANYTHING!).

Limitations:
Access 97
Solaris web server

I am trying to get our IT to allow a Windows box for the web server
and use IIS and ASP but I am not sure this is possible. Any technical
information regarding this migration would also be appreciated (Data
Access Pages vs. Client-Server, etc.)

Not all problems can be solved Programatically. Your IT department
needs to increase thier bandwidth (or tell people to stop surfing the
web so much!) I would suggest an upgrade of your network system for a
start. If you are still using Access 97, then you are probably also
running old servers that are too slow for the number of users
accessing it.
a program like this is difficult at best with Access, but upgrading
office won't help much either.

Programming Solutions:

1. You might want to convert your access databases to *.mde files to
compile the code into machine language. (This may cause alot of bugs
in the beginning with name references) do a search and replace with
all code from mdb to mde. If you have any linked tables you will have
to re-link them.

2.If you use ms access queries and macros, you may want to convert
them into vb code.

3. You may want to have a system of where the person entering the
data, will enter it localy, then when the database closes, an append
query statment appends the data into the linked tables on the users
application; or you might also trigger this event with an "Submit"
button. You can also use the AfterUpdate event with the last field
entered (as long as it is a mandatory field).

A good design is the first step to a fast efficient system. If you are
like me, my employers expect results immediately--without a design
phase. Explain this is not the way to build a database. You need to
design a plan of action. It may a couple of days to a week or even two
to get it organized, but it will save weeks of redesigning later on.

All of these optimization techniques will increase your data some-what
but it sounds more like your network is bottle-necking somewhere. If
not, then it's probably the network configuration itself.

Networking solutions:

1. use a network optomization program to analyze your network and make
the recommended changes.

2. Increase a DSL to a T1, or a T1 to a T3 etc.

3. Upgrade your servers!

if all this doesn't work...

4. Last but not least, "Hire Me!"

If you have any questions about details, e-mail me.

Good Luck.

RonRomero (AT) PacificDBMS (DOT) com


tonysjunk (AT) att (DOT) net wrote in message news:<da5fe505.0307281201.73e07a06 (AT) posting (DOT) google.com>...

I appreciate your help but I have completed the following suggestions.
The file server mentality is just not working. Access takes to long
for the queries (everything is written in VBA). I have made a mde to
test and any speed increase is negligible. The hardware
implementations that you recommend are not possible. I am dealing
with a tight IT department and a tight budget. Use what you got.

I was hoping to actually redesign and rethink my strategy. Moving to
a client-server or data access pages sounds good but everything I read
deals with Access 2000 or 2002. How do I get a 97 system on an
intranet rather than a file server? Is ASP the best route? How do I
make sure the user can input data as well is query the database?
Using a mapped drive for most users is OK but the large transactions
take time and the more bandwidth that is used the more problems there
are. Access seems to "forget" what it is doing. I suppose these are
network collisions but I am not sure.

Thanks for your help but with the constraints that have been placed on
me I need more...

RonRomero (AT) cox (DOT) net (Ron Romero) wrote in message news:<4d78759e.0307282150.3fbb190a (AT) posting (DOT) google.com>...

Also, I wonder if FileMaker Server edition could be any good. as a back-end,
with your typical ACC97 as FE. I have used it and it is very fast. Not
quite cheap.



"Saintor" <saintor1 (AT) REMOVETHIShotmail (DOT) com> wrote