Access mdb and Thin Client

[Mark CHP IMD]

Gentle people,
Could someone enlighten me to the strengths and weaknesses of ‘Thin Client�
I have read a number of papers, but I would like personal testimonial as to
its strengths and weaknesses. How easy is it to set up, should it be
independent on the server, are there security issues? Any help is
appreciated. I might add here, I am coming at this from the perspective of a
programmer and not a DBA, so I need it simple.
Thanks,
Mark

 

[Albert D.Kallal]

The "normal" setup for a multi-user access application is to split your
database. This is the ONLY way to properly develop, and deploy ms-access
applications.

However, that "split" database will not work over a WAN (wide area network),
and needs a good LAN connection.

With the above in mind, then how do (can) we deploy a ms-access application
to people in different locations to share the same data?

You can read the following article about using ms-access on a network (and
thin clients are mentioned).

http://www.members.shaw.ca/AlbertKallal//Wan/Wans.html

 

[Arvin Meyer]

My personal experience is that thin client applications are far more
expensive to build, easily costing 3 times as much as an Access client
application. They take longer to use and generally do not have the same
level of Business Rules as their "thick" client alternatives. That said,
they are the only way to deploy an application over the Internet that has a
large number of users. If the number of users is less than 30 or so, I
personally would rather use an Access client with a Terminal Server.

As an example, our company has an asp application that cost approximately
$235,000 to build and maintain over a 5 year period. It is being replaced by
an Access application costing slightly less than $30,000 including all
development time, a brand-new server (hardware and software), and all client
access licenses. The cost of maintenance will be minimal, while the cost of
maintenance of the original app was typically well over $10,000 a year.
Terminal Servers (with firewalls) are typically more secure than Web
Servers.

If security is of prime concern, then Access may not be a good solution.
While our Access applications have yet to be cracked, they still offer
nowhere near the security of a SQL-Server machine and if our data were
sensitive (medical, etc.) I would not hesitate to use SQL-Server instead of
Access.
--
Arvin Meyer, MCP, MVP
Microsoft Access
Free Access Downloads
http://www.datastrat.com
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