creating genaric users in Access 2

[scoobs70]

I work at a company that has a high turn-over rate of employees. I was wondering if there was any way to create generic users in the user-level securities wizard. I tried to create this already but it is insisting on using the window login. I would like to create three names, Administator, Dispatcher, and User. The Administator will have rights to everything, the Dispatcher will have rights only to the forms he needs, and the user will only be able to do basic functions. My plan is to give out the appropriate name and pass to each employee. I appreciate any help.

Thanks,
SCOOBS70

 

[Mike555]

Read about "Workgroups" in MS Help.

--
Mike

 

[MoLaker]

What do you mean "Windows login"? Is it a network login or local computer login or NTFS login? Regardless, it sounds like you will have to supply the "lowly" users a generic password and ID for the network or computer and that's not a good idea. Since I see you are described as a "Technical user", I doubt if you have that option anyway as that would most likely be controlled by a tight-fisted network administrator.

That said, Windows login is out of the controll of MS Access. What you have done (or are trying to do) with user-level security should not be a problem once you resolve the matter of logging onto the network/computer.

Just my opinion, but high turnover is a good reason for increasing security, not reducing it.

 

[scoobs70]

Let me clarify,
I believe the login is a network login. We are running Windows XP Pro. I work at a military installation and that is the reason for the high employee turn-over rate. We are always having people coming and going. The Database is for our fire dept dispatch. My concern as to security is that I don't want people at the user end changing certain data. I am not concerned with privacy issues or such. I would like to have only a few generic user names that people can log on to access with. My problem is that when I set up the user level security it does not give a drop down menu to pick a name from. It seems to be using the network login. All employees have a network login but I was hoping to bypass setting each user up with permissions every time someone new arrives to the station. I not sure if this can be done.

Is there a way to bypass Access using the network login so people can either type the name they want to use or select form a pull down?

Thanks again,
Scoobs70 (one of the lowly employees)

 

[Mike555]

Why not create Access workgroups local to each PC?

--
Mike

 

[MoLaker]

When is the user presented with this login window? Are they already logged on to the network or are they attempting to log onto the workstation? Are you trying to set this up on a single computer where all users use the same workstation or is the database intended to be multi-user on the network?

The network login has nothing to do with MS Access except for directory and file access permissions. So, before MS Access user-level security can come into play, one must negotiate the network login. This part of the security scheme is the most critical globally in that permissions here determine what users can do or see on the entire network, not just your Access database. This is the part I don't think you have authority alter.

But, let's say for the moment that the user is logged on to the network and has read/write & delete permissions for the directory where the database resides. Now you can begin to apply MS Access user-level security. Now you can use a generic username in Access user-level security and limit that user's permissions. You can, also, have a user called Dispatcher and give that user elevated permissions. And the same goes for a user named Administrator. However, I highly recommend administrators and dispatchers NOT be generic and you control their permissions through group permissions instead. I'm assuming the administrators and dispatchers are probably not high turnover individuals.

Your statement confuses me somewhat.

My problem is that when I set up the user level security it does not give a drop down menu to pick a name from

Are you looking at the Access login prompt and expecting a dropdown list like one sees with Windows? Access does not do that. You either know a valid MS Access username and password or you don't. In your case, that could be a genric userID if you want and doesn't even have to have a password - if you want. But, it would still require the user to log onto the network before logging onto Access - or be already logged onto the network through some other user's name (not a particularly good idea).

If you or someone involved were a programmer, it could be possible to not have user-level security and then through coding, use network login ID's to determine permissions for access to certain forms, etc. based on the user's network ID. This, however, gets very complex and assumes some measure of administrative rights to the network. I get the impression this is not one of your options.

 

[scoobs70]

Thank you for being patient with me. I misunderstood how Access work. Thank you for clearing it up. I was under the impression that the name that pops up when you open Access is the name you have to use. I will take your adivce on the Administrator and Dispatchers. Turn over is a little slower with them. Still new at this so I really do appreciate all of you help.
Scoobs70