Antic - re Access 2003 and SQL Server.... I'm assuming you have already set up a SQL Server database on JoDo. This only works with Access 2003 edition by the way.
1. Fire up Access 2003, then File/New From the choices select Project Using New Data. When the dialogue box pops up, navigate to where you want to store the Microsoft Office Access Project (*.adp) file, give it a name (eg OnlineJoDo.adp) and click Create.
2. A "Microsoft SQL Server Database Wizard" will then appear. Click Cancel. You're then left looking at a blank project in Access.
3. Select File/Connection... A "Data Link Properties" box then appears. Fill it in with the IP address of the SQL Server you are using on JoDo in box 1. In box 2 enter your username and password for the database - this means you will have selected the "Use a specific username and password" radiobox. If you want, tick the Allow Saving Password box - this will save you having to enter it all the time, but obviously less secure. Item 3 - select the "Select the database on the server" radio button, then, using the drop-down list, find your database from all the zillions listed. Finally, click OK
4. That should be it. Your blank project will now be full of all the tables, stored procs etc in your database, after which you can edit, add data etc.
You can create tables easily as per normal Access - all the SQL Server datatypes are there.
It's not so good for creating stored procedures which is why I use the MS Query Editor tool. It's OK for editing stored procs though, onece they've been created.
To open your database in the future, make sure you are online, then double-click your OnlineJoDo.adp file and then click the Open button when the dialogue box pops up in Access.
So, you end up with an Access front end to a remote SQL Server database. This means you can have all the usual Access features like forms and so on, reports etc. I think it's a really neat way of handing a SQL Server database and is several orders of magnitude better than Enterprise Manager or the thing they have on JoDo (which is fine if you don't have Access 2003).
With regards to JoDo as a host, I find that reliability is excellent, but sometimes the webpages are a tad slow. This could be because I'm in England and I suspect the nameservers are somewhat distant, and the servers are in Florida I think. Right now, as I type this, I'm in San Francisco and its all blazingly fast on my hotel room broadband. I've had a few upsets (and got really mad!) with emails from my web pages failing, but I suspect it was my fault for not coding the Persits ASPEmail component properly. I use asp.net 99% of the time by the way. Anyway, since being put right by the gurus on this forum my emails have been 100% reliable, which is vital for my websites. Note that if you plan on sending out >100 per day you'll have to fill in JoDos mass-mailing form and fax it over to them in Delhi. This is to stop spammers (the blighters!).
So, hope this all helps. If I can be of any further assistance please just ask.
Thanks,
Rob
PS I travel all over the world all the time and have had no snags with JoDo from Africa, India, the far east, all the USA, Australia, South America and Japan, so you should be OK!
