Application slow over VPN (1 Viewer)

xPaul

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All,

Quick question from me.

I have an Access application that is quite slow over VPN however when loading it or forms within it, it is quite slow. When searching for information within the forms - when entering a search term by the third character of said search term the search grinds to a halt.

The question that I have is that when copying the whole database from where it resides to the local computer via the VPN it is instantaneous.

Am I correct in thinking that this is simply because of a difference in protocols being used?

Thanks.
 

Ranman256

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It depends. My VPN is fast sometimes.
Other days,it slows down.
PC speed, network speed, VPN connect speed,etc.
 

Minty

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Unless you have a very quick and reliable VPN running access over it can be troublesome. You are dragging your data across the VPN network and if there is a lot of it the Access protocols expect a LAN connection type response.

If you can try using a remote desktop / citrix style app - much more reliable, and less likely to crash/corrupt etc.
 

The_Doc_Man

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Depends, but VPN is usually fast or slow because of contention levels. The action of copying the file from point A to point B is a one-time copy whereas running FE/BE connections is a multiple transfer event. The difference is the window of opportunity for contention, and repeated transfers imply a "wider" window.

You asked about protocols. Since both sides of the connection use Windows File Sharing, both will ride the Server Message Block protocol, or SMB. So everything is the same whether copying the app or using it. The only way that you would use a different protocol would be to copy using FTP rather than drag-n-drop between your local system and a mapped drive.
 

Pat Hartman

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Access with a Jet/ACE BE is a non-starter on most VPN's. They are just too slow. Even the best WAN is about 1% of the speed of the average LAN. You can sometimes get something usable if you convert the BE to SQL Server and run the FE from your c: drive (which you should be doing anyway). However, if your app is built using "Access" techniques that bind forms to tables or to queries without criteria and the user filters locally, the SQL Server solution will probably be even slower than the Jet/ACE version.

To take advantage of client/server, you MUST change your forms to be bound to queries that have selection criteria. In a simple situation, you can have a couple of combos or textboxes in a form's header. The RecordSource query will have a WHERE clause that looks something like:

Where Somefield = Forms!myform!cboSomeField or SomeOtherField = Forms!myform!txtSomeOtherField;

The form will open "empty" since the criteria will be null. The user selects his criteria and either pushes a button (if there are multiple options) or if only one option, the code can run in the click event or the AfterUpdate event and the only code you need is:

Me.Requery

That simple change to your forms will probably get you a huge performance gain against SQL Server tables. You might need to go with passthrough queries to do bulk updates or deletes.

As the others have said, RDP might be better if your technical people can support it. The reason that RDP is a better solution is because EVERYTHING runs on the server and only pictures are sent to your computer and keystrokes are sent to the server. Citrix is also a recommended solution.
 

pbaldy

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2.5 year old thread?
 

Pat Hartman

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Something made it pop to the top of the list. I have no idea what caused that. Maybe someone made a post but then deleted it. I certainly didn't go looking for it.
 

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