use database software on lan

hello friends,
i ve made a hospital management system which stores all the basic data of patients etc of the hospital in a database. i wanted to make it such that if the software can be installed on a LAN. i.e. if a change is made on one pc it should come on all the computers, which most probably can be done by installing it on the server of the network. but is this possible using vb and access and if yes,how??? or i will have to use any other database system. is there any other way to do it??? please help... im totally stuck up in it....
thanks byeeeee

The database can reside on the LAN, and even the exe can reside on the LAN, but all dependency files that your exe needs to run must be loaded, and registered, on all individual computers.

So, if all you do is update the exe, and never, ever add any new components or any new dependency files, then this might be an option.

The down side, of course, is that if the exe ever got deleted, everyone would be affected, not just one person.

thanks for d prompt reply hack,
bt how to configure it or what changes have i got to make?? im having no idea of it. intalling dependencies is not a problem but how to set it up on a lan?? could u please explain in detail....
thanks again and waitng for ur reply

Thread moved to Database Development forum (the "VB6" forum is meant for questions which don't fit in more specific forums)

Just put the database in a shared folder (preferably on a server), with the apt permissions set. There is an article explaining how to do that in the Access section of our Database Development FAQs/Tutorials (at the top of the Database Development forum)

However, depending on how many users will be connected at one time, Access may not be a good idea - if you have more than 5 simultaneous users there is a good chance of regular corruption (which requires kicking the users out of the program, and running a "Compact & Repair" to fix it). There is also the issue of not being able to take a backup (or make admin changes like adding tables) while users are connected.

A good way around those issues is to not use a system like Access (which is based around files, which each computer modifies), but instead use something like SQL Server/Oracle/MySQL (which are server based) that do not have the same kind of problems - note that there are free versions of all of them that you can download.


No matter which database system you use, you also need to think more carefully about your code, because if it hasn't been designed appropriately (like opening a recordset for editing when you aren't going to edit it) you will get locking issues, and people will get problems (including errors) when using the program.