Network Access to Database 1

[Jedi420]

I administer an Access 2000 database for a group in our company. The DB is located on a shared drive that everyone who is supposed to can see. I have everyone use a shortcut with command line arguments to load the workgroup file each time the Database is opened instead of having everyone leave System.mdw for good.
My problem is that 2 employees (both run NT 4) have trouble logging on to the database (I secured the DB using Microsoft's recommended method). They are prompted with a Windows message saying that their username and password are incorrect to open the database. This their OS saying this .... Access wont even open for them! Everyone else in the office has no trouble opening the database...some on NT4, some on WIN 2K. So I assume it has to be something with the settings on their PC's, but for the life of me I cannot figure it out.
I tried manually switching their workgroup file to the one that the database uses instead of having it automatically switched back and forth by a shortcut, so they could just open up the "real" database on their machines (the 2 guys) instead of using the shortcut. This works perfectly, but sucks because this is not the only Access DB they use so they have to keep manually switching their workgroup file, which is very annoying. Please help if you can!
Naturally, anything that goes wrong is the programmers fault (me!) so I would like to correct this as soon as possible. ANY suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Jedi420

P.S. The server is a Novell Server (Not exactly sure of
any other specifics except that any settings on the
server are NOT to be altered in any way!!!!)

 

[WildHare]

Hmmm....ok, let's see here. When you MANUALLY open the database with your workgroup name, it works OK. This tells me that

a) their permissions are good.
b) the workgoup file is good.
c) their user names and passwords are good, according to the work group name.

But it doesn't work via the shortcut. This tells me that perhaps there is a TYPO in the shortcut? I know this seems obvious, and I'm not casting doubts on your abilities, but this seems to be the only answer. Have you checked the shortcut to MAKE SURE???

Jim Me? Ambivalent? Well, yes and no....
Another free Access forum:

http://www.forumco.com/jmhare

More Access stuff at

http://www.jmhare.com/wildhare2.htm

 

[JPeters]

Does your shortcut's target look like this?:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Msaccess.exe" "C:\MyPath\MyMdb.mdb" /wrkgrp "\\netpath\netdrive\system.mdw" /user Username /pwd pword

That's the default access path in the first set of quotes. Change the MyPath..etc to your DB path .. change the workgroup path to the appropriate network or local drive... '\\Compname\drive\path\system.mdw' or 'h:\system.mdw' whatever... and change the usrename and password respectively.

Do this for the shortcut on each machine so they can login correctly. If you just want to see a login box so the shortcut can remain default and they have to login when they use this shortcut (so u can set a universal shortcut on the network drive that everyone can copy to their computers and not have to edit) ... Just replace UserName with User and pwrd with ????. They'll get prompted each time.

-Josh ------------------
-JPeters
Got a helpful tip for Access Users? Check out and contribute to 'How to Keep Your Databases from becoming Overwhelming!'
thread181-293590
jpeters@guidemail.com
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[Jedi420]

Thanks so much for the response guys! WildHare, the shortcut is fine. I double checked though on several others employees computers and everything worked fine.
JPeters, I didn't know you could include the username and password in the command line...thats pretty cool. But it didnt solve the problem.
See, Access won't even open for them. They get a message box saying that they have an incorrect username or password ... not for the database, but to access that network resource. But they have no problems accessing anything else on the drive (which is shared).
Thank god these guys are understanding and aren't too pissed about this. They are giving me plenty of time to assess and correct the problem. I'll keep working at it, but anything else anyone could offer will be happily accepted.

Jedi420

 

[JPeters]

Have you tried loading up wrkgadm and connecting to the workgroup manually, and then just running msaccess.exe from their office directory and then use the open dialog box to open the DB from within Access? Sounds more like a shortcut problem to me. NT could be a bit more picky about shortcut target lines... Just let me know, you've probably already tried this.

-Josh ------------------
-JPeters
Got a helpful tip for Access Users? Check out and contribute to 'How to Keep Your Databases from becoming Overwhelming!'
thread181-293590
jpeters@guidemail.com
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[Jedi420]

I've somewhat solved the problem, but I'm not sure exactly how. The source of the problem appears to be the way NT lets users access network resources. While the group was at a company picnic (I hate those things, so I stayed back) I was fooling around on the guys PC (the ones whom I couldnt get the DB to work for), but I had to log on to their machines with my ID. Doing this, and trying to open the DB, I had no problems whatsoever!
This means that NT doesnt like the way their permissions for something (God knows what) is set up, since I got in fine, and was using NT (its NT 4). Upon logging out and having the guys (once they returned to work the next day) try this with their own usernames and passwords, it sitll didnt work. Then I manually set their workgroup to the one I used. This way the DB opens fine, but annoying. Then I switched them back to System.mdw and tried the shortcut again, and BEHOLD, it worked!
I tried this method for the other 2 people (I found 1 more for whom it did not work in addition to the original 2) it didnt work for and all of them gained acces to the DB. I find this to be very quirky and one of those things that comes only with experience in Access and Microsofts OS. I hope this helps anyone who has similar problems. THANKS A BUNCH FOR ALL THE HELP GUYS....ESPECIALLY JPETERS. LATER.

-Jedi420

 

[JPeters]

Your welcome, and thanks for the star. Sometimes a nudge in the right direction is all you need to get the ball rolling. ;-)

-Josh ------------------
-JPeters
Got a helpful tip for Access Users? Check out and contribute to 'How to Keep Your Databases from becoming Overwhelming!'
thread181-293590
jpeters@guidemail.com
------------------