Wireless should be fine.
Both XP? File Sharing already ? Just drop a copy into a share folder.
If by some oddball chance the copy gets corrupt, do it again. You can look at byte size after you copy, if it matches, its hightly unlikely anything has changed.

Thanks Mikie. I'm so confused because I don't understand how this works. Both machines XP. Both will have medical software which uses access as its data base. Info entered in one machine needs to show up on the other one.

The software company states that doing this wireless can corrupt the data base (states a MS article warning against this). He said the data base is dependent on the quality of the signal. He said he would do it, but can't support it if I run into problems. If I back up each day, the worse that can happen is I lose the data from that day.

Hardwiring apparently avoids this problem as it is not dependent on a wireless signal. Less chance of problems.

I don't know what to believe because I don't understand what they are explaining. I just want to be able to send info back and forth between computers. I guess it would be like using Quick-books on both machines and the info would go back and forth as you enter it.

Am I making sense? So sorry, I'm at a loss undertanding this.

Jane

I don't know your program so cant say for certain but if somebody that knows the program said he'd do it himself... I'd do it, unless I knew I had an ongoing wishy washy wifi signal.

Sounds like you want real time sync of files between the two computers ....and that real time wifi connection might not be 100% real time,,, there really are occasional pauses when you have a wifi signal.
.... perhaps caused by the overpowering city radio in the passing fire truck, or the neighbors wifi interferance when he reboots his router causing your wifi card to do a moments scan ? Or something like that...

You would rarely see connection pauses in a locally wired netwoking environments / unless of course you had way too many computers sharing the same piece of wire or equipment.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I'm getting two different opinions from the software 'guys.' I think they don't want to tell me to try something and have to deal with problems later. Here is a copy of one of the emails written by one of the software guys

.... ""if you were to talk to a local IT guy, what you would want to tell him is that you want the computers (multiple computers) to all be able to access a particular file (EZData.mdb, but you donÂt want to do it through a wireless network (because of the risks of database corruption associated with wireless connections and Microsoft Access  although the part in the parenthesis here might be more than he has to know)....""

The IT guys I spoke with said they could hardwire (expensive), but didn't feel there would be a problem with a wireless connection. If a problem did occur, the info could be restored through a back-up.

I was wondering if anyone had done this and ran into problems. The wireless route is the way I'd like to go...but I don't want to risk losing my data - there is a lot of data.

Jane

Sounds like access data gets lost easy.
Here's a smarter type guy talking about access corruption...

Here is a link that might be useful: MVP Access

Wow, that gives me a lot to think about. Confusing, plus it sounds like everything I do all the time. I'm surprised I haven't crashed it yet.

How do you find these articles?
Thank you very much,

Jane

How do you find these articles?

I knew there would be some MVP's which are guys.gals that spend lots of newsgroup time - So I searched MS Developer Network for MVP & Access. There's a ton of Access MVP's. So I added 'corrupt' to the search.

Pardon me,I don't see how or why you have such a big problem with hard wire system ? I run 15 computers at my home and run 5 different OS . All I did was hook up a router to my DSL conection and then just ran Cat 5 cable to the computers.use cable nails to secure to wall,and done. You now have wired a home network. If you really want to do this, I would gladly talk you thru this.
Contact me anytime. Good luck.

You are such a genuis Mikie!

Thank you tiredoldman. I was asking about doing it wireless because the estimate I got to hardwire was expensive. The two computers would be separated by a long hallway. I was told the only way they could run the cable was to go through the ceilings and walls. The price for just running the cable was ridiculous. I was looking at other options.

Jane

If you have an attic or crawl space, grab a ladder and climb on up there with a drill bit and some wire. It's sometimes very easy to do. Just a little bit dusty and hopefully no little furry critters running around climbing over you. Take a jar of peanut butter to keep them busy if there are.

Ha, funny Mikie - actually not too far from the truth. When we moved into this office last year, Verizon was running the phone lines and had to go through the ceiling. He told me he saw lots of rat traps inside the ceiling. I almost had a heart-attack!

No way I'm going up there!

Jane

If Verizon is your phone and internet/ISP ? Call them to see what the cost would be from them. Verizon Business use here, it used to be they'd come do small changes like that for free.
They might not go down into the walls though, but can maybe surface mount it fairly neatly.

Jane,
I see. Okay, was just thinking if it was less than 100ft. you could have done it yourself. I just use those little cable coaxal nails to hold it to the wall. Makes it nice and neat,And no drilling thru walls. lol. Good luck and God bless.

That's okay, Tiredoldman, I'm tired too - of all this computer stuff. So much hassle. It sounds like you are doing what I would like to. Any problems sharing data? Is it instant? I have never seen this work. I've seen computers hooked to a server, but never directly wired.

Jane

Hi,

If you need to recover your database, you may try Advanced Access Repair at http://www.datanumen.com/aar/ This tool is rather useful in salvaging damaged Access mdb files. Maybe this can help.

Alan