Remote usage.

[Eljefegeneo]

I have tried to research this topic, but the amount of information seems so overwhelming that I really don't know where to start.

At work we will now have one person who will be working full time from home. Right now he does this once a week and uses LogMeIn to access his workstation at work from home. Even with supposedly high speed internet courtesy of Comcast, the connection seems slow using this method. He can do most things, but printing reports, sending out emails, etc., has proved cumbersome.

We have MS Access 2010 installed at work. The DB is split, front end on workstations (6 total), backend on the server. Server – we have a version of MS Server on it - maybe 5 years old, seems fast enough for most work. The DB isn't large, maybe 40 MB on the front end and 50 MB on the backend.

I have seen suggestions for a web based DB, but I am very reluctant to reprogram my current DB for this. The DB isn't large, maybe 40 MB on the front end and 50 MB on the backend. Also seen suggestions for MySql, Sharepoint, the free MS upgrade to SQL Express?? I would prefer to keep the backend in the Access 2010 format. Like I said confusing – at least to me.

So, the question: What would be the best (simplest) way to connect to the server from the remote location? That is, the frontend on his home computer and the backend on the server at work? If he has Access 2010 installed on his home computer, is there a better way than what he is currently doing: using his work desktop remotely to use Access?

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[isladogs]

You could try other similar programs such as Teamviewer but I suspect the results will be similar to Logmein

Is it possible to setup a Remote Desktop Connection for this person?

Another possibility is to use MS Terminal Server. It works well but isn't cheap.

Don't even think about Access Web Apps - they are in the process of being exterminated by MS

 

[Eljefegeneo]

Tried Teamviewer. Very similar to LogMeIn. I'll look into setting up a remote desktop connection. Is this better than a "LogMeIn" type connection?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

What you DON'T want is to let the person directly attempt to connect to the back end from home. However, a Terminal Services solution IS possible. Something like Citrix Server at your office and a Citrix client over the internet MIGHT work if your security guys would bless it. (Which isn't a guaranteed result.) If the entity that connects to Access is at work, which would be the case for a remote terminal services solution, you might have a relatively stable situation. Having an Access FE use the public internet to get to the BE file is dangerous in that it is likely to corrupt the BE the first time that the internet connection hiccups. And TRUST me, they hiccup like crazy.

 

[Eljefegeneo]

So, are you telling me that stick with the LogMeIn solution and live with it? If so I guess I will just upgrade both the home computer and the workstation computer to the latest and fastest and let sleeping dogs lie. The last thing I need is any chance of a back end corruption.

Thanks.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Yep, live with it. Despite the wonderful things it does, there are some things that the internet DOESN'T do very will and that includes certain types of file sharing using SMB protocols. SMB includes what Access does but it does NOT include web-based methods because they use different protocols that aren't as susceptible to net glitches.

 

[Eljefegeneo]

OK! Thank you. I really do appreciate your input on this.