Linked tables auto resolution over LAN

[Frank77]

I've just noticed a capability in Access that I didn't know existed:

When updating some Access front end databases on my wife's pc I found that,
when intially opened, two of the front ends were able to resolve the linked
table file location over our in-home LAN and opened normally.

Two other applications failed on open (my usual experience - Access reports
that it can't find the files on C:\etc\etc ) whereupon I use Linked Table
Manager to specify the backend db file (which resides on my pc in folders
shared in Network Neighbourhood).

I can't find any documentation that says Access can resolve links
automatically. I'm wondering under what circumstances Access can resolve
these links and when will it fail? All the backend dbs are in their own
individual shared folders so I'm puzzeld why some resolve automatically and
others need manual intervention to resolve the links.

FWIW my wife's pc is a hand-me-down that runs NT Workstation 4 and Office 97
while the hosting pc runs Win Me and Office XP.

Any info appreciated.

 

[John Nurick]

Hi Frank,

AFAIK there's no "automatic resolution".

Could it be that the databases that appear to do so are the ones whose
back ends are in shared folders that happen to be mapped to the same
drives on the two PCs?

Alternatively, if you set up a front end mdb on one PC that uses a UNC
path to point to a back end on a shared folder on the other PC, e.g.
\\SERVERNAME\Share\folder\file.mdb
this path will still point to the same place when you move the front end
to the PC that contains tha folder.

 

[Frank77]

Hi John - yes, it turns out there are UNC references in the case of the two
successful db link situations. I hadn't consciously set them up but this
must have occurred some time back when I dragged the front end db back to the
hosting pc. Thanks for the idea on UNC ... although obvious in retrospect
it had never occurred to me that Access could use UNC.