Running Database Over VPN 1

[Evil8]

Hello, maybe someone here can advise me. We have a huge database originally created in Access several versions ago, long before I started working here. So far we have been using it for years over a local office network for in Access 2003.

The database working file is FIS.mdb, but I also have fisdocs.mdb, FISDS.mdb, FISDocArc.mdb and a Zipcodes.mdb. There are also .ldb files for each of these as well. These files are all on a WIN SBS 2003 server. On a normal login a logon script copies over the FIS.mdb file which is what the user runs on the local computer and everything seems to run just fine.

I just opened a VPN connection so that one of our sales staff can work remotely from another city, but during testing with Access 2010 on an WINXP laptop it takes nearly an hour to load the database and queries take forever as well. This is way, way too slow when someone is sitting with a client.

What options are others using to accomplish this same goal?

Thanks!

 

[lameid]

Some options...

Desktop Sharing... Whether it is Goto my PC, remote desktop, VNC etc, not having to read the file over the WAN goes a long way.

Use a backend database that is not a file sharing application like Access... If you moved to SQL server you could only transfer data you really need.

You could write synchronization for when the user is connected via LAN (or try out the replication in Access) so the user has a local copy.

Forget Access and go with a Web application.

 

[Evil8]

lameid, thank you very much for your input. The sales person is currently using LogMeIn to her desktop here in the office. I was just hoping to find a better short term solution to a rebuild which will happen...someday. I'm just starting to build the web application with HTML, CSS, Javascript/Ajax, and MySQL. The shear complexity of this project makes me cringe some days... LOL. I'm only an intermediate programmer at best, but I can only get better I guess. Again thanks.