Posted by Michael on 03/23/07 06:35

Hello,
I am trying to develop a database solution for an organisation in
Indonesia.

This organization has a number of offices and users throughout the
country. They all need to maintain their own data, but I also need to
create a central database, to store all of the data, and share data
between the individual users. The problem is that the internet
connections are not reliable, so a online solution isn't possible. I
am planning to implement stand alone databases in Access, which "sync"
with the central server. This sync could happen automatically (maybe
daily), or could be initiated by the user. This Sync would/could take
place when the internet connection is working.

I am very familiar with Access, but I suspect that I will need to use
SQL Server for the central database. I have not used SQL Server
before, and have a few questions:

Is it possible to host a SQL Server, so that it is "Online"? What do I
need to do for this? Does this need to be hosted by an ISP, or could
it been hosted on a computer in our office? What are the security
considerations?
Is it then possible to connect to this SQL Server from the Access
databases in the various locations to "Sync" the data? If I could run
SQL statements from the stand alone databases which could access the
online SQL Server I could write the code for the Sync procedure. The
bit that I am unsure of is how to connect to the SQL Server?

Could anyone point me in the right direction? Examples? References?
What sort of technology to use?
I know VB and how to write SQL statements, it's just the connectivity
that I am unsure of.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers

Michael

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