Database over a network (2000)

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This is either real easy or real hard (probably easy and my IQ’s at fault)
Have a database on one machine on an office network. I want to be able to open it on other machines on the same network (wouldn’t even matter if only one person at a time could open it) Eventually I want to mail merge from a number of machines as well, using that one central database.
Have mapped the other drives and also used full UNC but I continually get a message that Access cannot find the file even if I have tried to open it by double clicking on the actual database. What am I missing here (apart from IQ points)
TIA

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Are you doing this through a shortcut, or from the File/Open menu? And what OS are you using – Win98, Win2000, WinXP? Also is it running in a workgroup or a Domain? Is it possible that you have linked tables that go to another database, and that is what Access is complaining about?

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The general design of multiple users sharing a database is relatively easy. First of all, you should have separate backend and frontend databases, which I believe you already have. The backend database should sit on a shared drive (be it a dedicated network server or just a drive on a workstation that is shared). Each workstation should then have a copy of the frontend on their local drive.

What I do is put a copy of the frontend on the server and link it to the backend. I make sure I use the UNC designation for the path to the linked tables instead of mapped drives. I then have a .bat file that I put in each user’s startup folder which copies the frontend from the server to the local disk. The frontend is already linked, so no relinking has to take place. This method works fine for a limited number of users (not much more than 10); beyond that it can get difficult to administer.

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Sorry – in trying to be brief, I made myself unclear
Database does have external links to 3 text files (overcomes problems where I can only export from a DOS based database -which I have no control over-to a static file ie not ODBC). This way the user just needs to re-export to the same text files on regular basis and data is relatively up to date and queries etc work.
I do not have front and back ends – just one database with the external links mentioned above. While I can get to this and manipulate to my hearts content, this only applies on the machine it is actually stored on.
Although this drive is available over the network, Access keeps telling me it can’t find the file when I try to open it. This inability to open is irrespective of whether I create a shortcut and try to open it or open using both mapped drive designation or full UNC from File open
If I need to go the backend /frontend route, will my existing external links to the text files prevent me from doing this.
The machines are using XP Pro
TIA

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If it is being hosted on an XP Pro PC, then there is a good chance the files are stored on a NTFS formatted file system. That file system requires that you give users explicit permissions to view, read, write, delete etc. in each and every folder and file. It sounds like you may not have allowed other users to even see the folder the file is being stored in.

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I think you need to follow-up on Wendell’s suggestion. I’m unclear when you are getting the error message, does it not even open your database, or does it not find these external data files? To open a database, you need read/write/delete privileges in the directory.

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I can read all files on the other networked computer (and copy them to other locations)
The error message occurs when, having opened Access, I then try to File..Open this particular database (or double click on the file or click on a shortcut to the file The message is along the lines of “Cannot find Property Master database …”, despite the fact that I can see it, copy it etc. Thus I cannot even open the database, let alone check that the internal linkages within the database are working.
I can both see and open (in Notepad) the linked text files. The error even occurs if I log on as Administrator

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Try holding down the Shift key as you click on the database to open it. This will bypass your startup form and bring your right to the database window. You should be able to check your links then.

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