Re: Shared Drive, Security

Joan,

Your instructions are the ones I found and followed. I feel I am going in
circles with this. Obviously I'm misunderstanding a crucial part of the
instructions. I don't seem to be the only one because every post I have
looked up here and other forums seem to be having the same issues. Though I
am not familar with setting up securities and shared drives, I am not dumb by
any means and feel like this shouldn't be that difficult to master.
Especially considering how far I've come in learning Access and VBA. I
realize it is tricky, as Access is very picky but it is my job to administer
databases so I have to learn it. =)
I have printed out the whitepaper instructions and am reading them over. So
far I have managed to create a new workgroup different than my default. I
have set up passwords for users, though I do not know where they exist
anymore. I think they are in the path to the other workgroup I have set up,
but the database is not in that workgroup. I have also managed to set up
passwords on my Access (not on purpose) so no matter what I open in Access I
am asked for a user name and password. Which is not at all what I wanted,
though many others seemed to have done the same.
I created this other workgroup and the path I used was in the shared drive,
so basically it created a copy of Access there with that workgroup, correct??
I can't open anything there because all my databases are connected to my
default workgroup. I'm a little confused on that.
I am also confused about the splitting of the database. I had tried that
before, per your instructions also and it split.... but I don't understand
the point of it. I was still able to go into the front end copy and go into
the linked tables and change information.
Also, I'm trying to understand your last comment:

For most users, just copy the frontend to their computers (they'll use their default system.mdw and don't need a shortcut). For the three users that need full access, you'll give them a copy of the frontend, and a desktop shortcut to start the database. The shortcut target would look like:
"path to msaccess.exe" "path to frontend on their computer" /wrkgrp "path to the secure mdw on the s drive"

How do I copy the front end to their computers? I don't know if there is a
right and wrong way. I mean, email it to them, put it on a disk, put it on
the shared drive and pick it up from there..... does it matter?? And if they
just have a front end copy, how will they be getting the updated information?
This database will be updated constantly, maybe not daily but it tracks our
employees trainings, which are pretty frequent. The "others" (about 8) will
just need to print reports and that's it. The 3 main are myself as the
adminstrator and my 2 bosses. We will be the only ones who can update
employee information, though I'm not so sure I want them fooling around
looking at code and erasing something, lol. But it is what it is.
What I would love is if I could just put out access to this one report, our
sign off ***, for anyone to be able to use but not the ability to see or do
anything else. Is that at all possible???? lol. I would still need to set
up the whole database as already said but that would alieviate a lot of my
pains.
Thanks for any further help. I know it's a lot of questions but if I don't
get it exactly right, it doesn't work at all.


"Joan Wild" wrote:

"Pixie78" <Pixie78@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:342A71AD-D144-4238-84B8-338172E916BA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I need serious help with this. I have read through the instructions over and
over. I'm not dumb and this isn't working how it says it should.

What instructions are you following?
Security FAQ
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=207793

Security Whitepaper
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=148555

I've also outlined the detailed steps at
www.jmwild.com/AccessSecurity.htm
and you'll find other links there.

I created a database. I need to put it on our shared drive (S:\) so other
people can start using it.

You need to split the database and put just the backend (and the mdw) on the 'S' drive. Are you certain that everyone will have 'S:' mapped to the same location?

I need 3 people to have permissions to do
whatever they want to it and everyone else only needs to be able to print
reports and look at forms but not make any changes to anything what so ever.

You can secure it so that 'everyone else' uses their default system.mdw and therefore don't need to login. The 3 users would use the secure mdw and login . You'll find instructions on my site to do this - 'securing without needing to login'

Currently the database is on my desktop. First I need to know if I leave it
there to start all this security wizard stuff or do I place it in the shared
drive first?

You can leave it there for now. Get it secured and working properly. Then split it manually (you'll find the step by step for this on my site as well). You'll put the backend on the server along with the secure mdw file.

For most users, just copy the frontend to their computers (they'll use their default system.mdw and don't need a shortcut). For the three users that need full access, you'll give them a copy of the frontend, and a desktop shortcut to start the database. The shortcut target would look like:
"path to msaccess.exe" "path to frontend on their computer" /wrkgrp "path to the secure mdw on the s drive"

--
Joan Wild
Microsoft Access MVP

.