Proper way to program a Microsoft Access Backend Database in a Multiuser Environment

Question

There is a prevailing opinion that regards Access as an unreliable backend database for concurrent use, especially for more than 20 concurrent users, due to the tendency of

Answer 1

Also see Corrupt Microsoft Access MDBs FAQ Which I've compiled over the years based on newsgroup postings and predates Allen's page. That said my clients have had very few corruptions over the years and have never lost data nor had to restore from backup.

I'm not sure what "write your program correcly" means in this context. I've read a few postings indicating this but it's more the implementation aspects. As Albert has pointed out you have to split the database and give each user their own copy of the FE MDB/MDE. You can't access a backend MDB over a wireless network card as they are too unstable. Same with a WAN unless the WAN is very fast/wide and very stable. We then suggest upszing to SQL Server or using Terminal Services/Citrix.

I have several clients running 20 to 25 users all day long into the system. One MDB has 120 tables while another has 160 tables. A few tables have over 600,000 to 800,000 records. The one client had 4 or 5 corruptions in five or seven years. We figured out the cause of all but two of those. And they were hardware related in one way or another. At least one of these apps should've been upsized to SQL Server. However that was cancelled on me by a Dilbert's PHB (Pointy Haired Boss).