What are the recommended requirements for using Jet on a Wireless Network?

[Steven Kogan]

I have a database that does not work on the client's wireless network. It works fine on a wired connection. Have others found that Access on wireless doesn't work properly? Or has someone found a solution to this problem?

I've done some searching and got some indication that MS Access/JET shouldn't be run on a wireless network. Apparently if the connection breaks for even a split second there is a chance of database corruption.

At the same time I haven't found a really official source that says JET on wireless is not supported.

Is there a way to configure, reasonably easy I hope, a connection to an mdb on a wireless network such that it will be stable?

[Delerna]

There is no reason why the the database won't run over a wireless network that I can think of. I think there is some other reason why it's not running on your clients computer.

To prove that, try connecting the clients computer to a wired network and if the db still doesn't work then it is not the wireless network.

What does "doesnt work properly" mean anyway?
I took it to mean that it is not working because that is what you said in the first sentence.

But then you follow up with "doesnt work properly"

[Steven Kogan]

It works on wired perfectly.

When it is on wireless it may work for a minute or so, and then it is as if it got disconnected from the network.

Nevertheless, the computer still has a wireless connection, only the mdb doesn't work.

[munkee]

Hmmm there are quite a few "potential" issues you could be having with this. Ensure you have some error handling within your vba code in the database and it will likely spew out some form of error when you are saying "not working".

Wireless networks are only really dangerous due to the way packets of information are sent and received. There can be times where records are being held in your computers memory, being edited and ready to send back over the network and you get a dropped connection or some lost packets across the wireless transmission. This is really dangerous for access databases as you effectively can end up with half of a record on one side of the connection and half on the other. Resulting in what is ultimately, database corruption.

However, aside from that dependent on where the back end of your database is held (I am assuming you have it split here) I know whenever our works computers are taken off a hard wire and switched to wireless we lose connection to a number of shared drives/servers. In order to use the databases correctly you have to sync back with these to ensure they are mapped and connected to before being able to work in the database.

The only other issue I can see is if there is some form of switch from a LAN to a WAN giving the impression of a "broken" database when infact it is just a very very very constricted connection resulting in super slow loading of the db, but without any error messages I wouldnt be looking down this route yet.

[NeoPa]

This is a problem. Wireless networking, by its very nature, is less stable than a wired one. The latter being reliably connected all the time, while the former is continually updating its status, all the way through from good connection down to none in worse cases.

The problem with Access and their databases is that they are designed to require constant access. ANY network failure, regardless of how soon the network is working again, can cause catastrophic results and corrupt a database. This is not true of almost everything else on PCs today. They are designed to handle such temporary disconnections robustly, and usually in such a way that the operator is never even aware of them.

Basically with Access, never allow the network to die while a project is running. Even for an instant. This is extremely hard to guarantee using a wireless network.

[Steven Kogan]

Thanks for your replies.

When Googling I haven't found posts on someone who had fixed this issue (other than going wired), nor have I found much information on people having problems with Access on a wireless connection. I was hoping there was a trick to make Access work more reliably in a wireless environment.

I haven't been able to recreate the error on Friday, and it seemed there was less network traffic on that day. When the failure happens again I'll take better notes on what error message comes up.

[NeoPa]

Steven Kogan:
I was hoping there was a trick to make Access work more reliably in a wireless environment.

Unfortunately, as the issue is inherent within the package itself, rather than specific to your project, I'm not sure what can be done here. I suppose there is always the possibility that some types of activities within a project are more susceptible than others to this problem, but fundamentally it's in the design of Access itself, and I doubt there's too much that can be done about that from a user (or designer even) perspective.