Hi all,

I need to develop a system that will operate as follows:

1. A central MS Access database hosted on a web server
2. Various Access clients who can only connect to the internet once per day (due to their access via dial up which would then make their phone lines busy) will need to be able to pull the newest version of certain tables from the central database based on when they click a button inside an Access form I will create
3. These various clients will need to be able to - in addition to pulling some data from the central database - upload certain tables to the database, again based on when they click a button on an Access form

I have several questions, but I'll try to be as concise as I can.

First, when the remote clients are not connected to the Internet (most of the day), the forms I'll design for them to query data MUST query local data, as these clients - again - can only connect to the internet once per day. Therefore, when the process of connecting to the central server is done, it needs to duplicate certain existing tables from the central server onto the client's local machine so s/he can access that local data when they're not connected to the net; the local data cannot simply link to an external data source because then the client would have to remain connected.

Second, I've heard about splitting Access databases into front ends and back ends (one housing the forms, the other housing the data), but that doesn't sound like it will work for me because that sounds like the client machine needs a constant connection to the central server. Can anyone advise on that?

Third, is it possible to push and pull the information to and from the server over https? The server has an SSL certificate installed and running, so is it possible to have Access pull this information over the SSL connection so the data is somewhat secure? (I'm trying to keep the cost down, so creating a secure VPN system seems a bit costly)

What I'd like to know in answer to my questions is if anyone can point me toward books/links which might help me (or if anyone wants to offer source code that'd be great!!! [grin]).

Thanks so much in advance.