I have a database created in Microsoft Access which I would like to host somewhere online so that I can access it securely from multiple locations.

I need to be able to edit the database and save it as if it was stored on a local drive and I need multiple clients to be able to connect to the database at once.

I’m confused as to whether I need a file hosting account, an online file server, a cloud based server or something completely different.

I wish I could just share the folder that the database is in but that would require that the computer it is stored on is left on all of the time which isn’t do-able.

I will greatly appreciate any help/sarcastic comments/lolcats given!

Does your org have sharepoint??
should be able to put it up on there i think

something on here might help:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access-help/introduction-to-integrating-data-between-access-and-a-sharepoint-site-HA010131463.aspx

How complicated is the Access DB? You may be better off re-writing it in something like MySQL or PostgreSQL as they will be far easier to host and maintain. I think Postgre comes packaged with some nice content management stuff now too.

If it is not possible to re-write the Access DB you will still need to re-write the forms the users will be using.

On starting work with a small company with very little cash at the time, I developed an access database a few years ago to manage CRM activity. As we grew and needed colleagues to utilise the same system I got the works developer to host the data tables remotely. They were converted to sql tables and then hosted by our remote hosting centre – we can now all use this via vpn from home or work offices. Works fine. Can’t help you with more technical info but does show that you can carry on without having to bin your access queries/reports etc all of which can quickly turn into a big development job if you start from scratch with another application…

It sounds like your are expecting to dump an Access database on a web host and users to download it.

You could create a public folder in dropbox.com and let users download it, edit it and upload it again.

But I suspect you really need a system built around it to update the database. Thus a forms based web application as the other posts are alluding to. Then it’s a bit more complicated than simply hosting a file.

Maybe Sugar Sync could be what you need.

I need to be able to edit the database and save it as if it was stored on a local drive and I need multiple clients to be able to connect to the database at once

Access won’t do it for you in the way that you want as far as I know. In fact if you want to use it that way then Access is definitely the wrong product as it can’t handle the network connection breaking mid transaction.

However, if you are using Access 2007 or 2010 you can publish the database to a sharepoint server. That will let you use a local copy of the database as your ‘front end’ on each client machine with the data being shared amongst them all.

IT geniuses

You mean Cougar? 🙂

Thanks for all your help people!

I think that I was being a bit optimistic thinking that I could access and edit an Access database from multiple locations without a server.

I’ve given in and rang our outside IT support as I think a VPS may work for what we want but he’d have to come and set it up as I have no experience with servers (as you can probably tell).

PS. Cougar is an IT genius (but TJ is god)

Bless.

TBH, it’s not really my field (Access… field… I’ll get my coat). I’m aware that there’s now a push for Office Online, or Live, or whatever they’re calling it this week. It’s not something I’ve ever used though.

There’s various ways of doing it ‘traditionally’ and to a large extent it’d depend. Are these locations already connected or are you relying on the public Internet; how many users are we talking; read/write or just read; is it an Access front end; and so on.

There may be an argument for migrating it to something more webby and scaleable as soma_rich suggests; whether this is a good idea or not would depend on the above and possibly other questions that I’ve not thought of yet.

The OP mentions sharing folders, but that the PC isn’t on all the time. No servers anywhere would imply a home environment, yes? What’s the scenario?

You have written a database app for the desktop / small LAN, and want to publish it so people can use it via the web?

I think you’re out of luck….but there are some possibilities….

Starting with Sharepoint 2010 Standard (and Enterprise – but not Express edition) you can publish your Access Database to it.

Have a look at this -> http://blog.accesshosting.com/get-an-access-database-on-the-web-in-less-than-5-minutes.html

By using cloud hosted Sharepoint, you might be able to publish the DB to the web….. assuming the installation in the cloud supports Access Publishing.

Access *can* work over the web/VPN, but it depends on the complexity of it. We have access here as a GUI to a SQL2k box. The original GUI was written for Access 97… and has been hacked to death since.

I’ve got the fun job of migrating it to Access 2010 / SQL 2008 R2. Yay.

HTH – Ali

I’d either look at setting up an server running Access on a public cloud (e.g. Amazon’s EC2) or Microsoft’s Azure public cloud supports (and has tools) to pull Access 2010 into a cloud-hosted Azure SQL solution. Not looked into costs but they shouldn’t be too bad (unless you want to keep it running for years).

Is this still running?

I think a VPS may work for what we want

It may do if all of your clients can access it at the same time.

Microsoft’s Azure public cloud…

IIRC Azure is Microsoft’s attempt to help you solve this problem. Part of the package is a hosted SQL server where they look after the setting up, updates etc. The bit you have to look after is splitting your db into front end GUI and back end database but the tools in Access 2010 are pretty good for this.

i read your opening post and thought “hmmm i can’t really help on this one as i’m not a computer expert” but then i read the last bit, hope this helps dude: