Ah! I think I found the problem. It was set to 'shared' like it should be, but the priveleges on the file itself were set to only all full control to a few individuals, and not the correct people. I updated the folder priveleges to allow 'Everyone' sufficient priveleges, although I could change it to only those who use it. Interesting.I'm getting this error message when I try to open one of the 'front end' files I have, and also when I try to open the 'back end' file from certain computers.
I can do it from my station here, and also from one primary station simultaneously.
I'm slowly making a transition over to MSSQL Server 2005 that I found on my new Laptop (not using the laptop for the server, but it piqued my interest) and I would imagine that I would not see this error message once the database is transferred.
I just had a thought.. I'm going to open the back end file with exclusive access and see if it is set to 'shared' mode or not. Maybe that is the reason. It's still strange that I can open it from.