IT Employment

I work for a company that has created an Access database to keep track of medical services to inmates in our state prison system. We have a peer-to-peer network of 7 XP Pro workstations. One of those stations is what we call "the master" because it holds the DB. The other six stations have runtime installed and connect to it via desktop shortcuts. As the database is developed and more tables, queries and forms are added, it is my responsibility to go to the master machine and update it via "get external data" and relink all relationships. I should also mention that the PCs came with MS Office SBE which did not include Access from the DELL factory where they were built so I have had to install MS Access 2000 on the master machine to allow me to enter the edit mode and do the update.

My questions are several:

When the last user closes the database, it is set to autmatically repair and compact. Unfortunately, compacting seems to do something to the file structure of the DB file so that the "client" workstation shortcuts can no longer find the file. We have turned off auto compacting as a workaround but the database is now starting to grow. The only other solution I have found is to copy the database on the master machine to another location on the C: drive and either re-point the client shortcuts or copy it back to its original location for the shortcuts to work again. Is this a browser problem with XP? Any thoughts?

Since Access is a flat database and all ofit is pulled through the wire on opening, things are slowing down more and more as we add features. We tried splitting the DB into a front end and a back end via one of the Access Utilities and it works fine on the master but when we connect via shortcuts pointed at the front end file from the clients, we get the error that the program cannot find the backend file on the master. Any suggestions?