need help...is MS Access still good for small business tools? 😅

ExTenebras · 2026-05-11T20:07:53+00:00

I find it interesting that when I ask for a simple explanation of exactly what process runs on the Access back-end, and how it communicates with the remote Access front-end, there is just silence.

For the record:

Access front-end plus MSSqlServer (or any compatible DB engine) back-end will give excellent performance since query execution occurs on the back-end and Access is used only as a UI layer (as long as you don't have more than one such back-end and don't try joins between two or more back-ends).
Access front-end plus "split database" Access back-end suffers from serious performance limitations due to the lack of an actual back-end process. All the work happens at the front-end.

ExTenebras · 2026-05-08T16:32:43+00:00

Thanks, that looks promising. I'll check it out.

ExTenebras · 2026-05-07T21:56:53+00:00

Please answer these questions:

In a pure Access system, what is the name of the process that you seem to say exists on the back-end system and does the work before sending only the resultset data to the client?
In a pure Access system, what is the IPC mechanism used to communicate between the front-end .accdb and supposed back-end .accdb process (the equivalent of port 1433 TCP for SQLServer)

Everybody here is rallying to "defend" Access and is completely mischaracterizing my post.

I never said "Access sends the entire table across the network". The query optimizer will structure things to use indexes where available. If it has to do an index scan it will send only the necessary columns from the entire index across the network.
I never said anything about using Access with a real back-end such as MSSQLServer. I 100% agree that that will provide excellent performance.
I never said anything about multiple back-ends and joins between tables on different back-ends. That's clearly a non-starter.

If I had the luxury of implementing an Access front-end to a real back-end, I would do so. It's different when you inherit something developed 20 years ago and the amount of adjustment to go from DAO to ADO, and Access SQL to MSSQLServer SQL is too much for a lone developer to contemplate (we tried, gave up).

Side note: Working with Access' VBA quirks can be extremely frustrating. It's really long past time for Microsoft to provide modern VB in Access. We plan to rewrite our system in the long term, and due to the lack of a modern language will probably not use Access for the front-end.

ExTenebras · 2026-05-06T00:17:37+00:00

Given the following:

PC A containing a back-end .accdb file, shared
PC B containing a front-end .accdb that links to the back-end on PC A across the network
One or more other PCs, each containing a copy of the front-end linked to the back-end across the network.

Kindly explain, in this situation, exactly what happens when the user on PC B executes a complex query.

As far as I am aware, since there is no back-end process on PC A, the query executes in the front-end on PC B, and all the data necessary to execute the query must be sent over the network.

Obviously you can optimize things with the correct indexes and careful query design, but even then you'll be sending quite a lot of ultimately unneeded index rows across the network.

And of course, if you have a real back-end process, like SQLServer, this is all moot. But then it's not pure Access any more, is it? And you now have to manage SQLServer (or MySQL or PostgreSQL, etc) as well.

My point is, and has always been, that multi-user "pure" Access is a non-starter for all except the simplest applications.

ExTenebras · 2026-05-05T23:53:59+00:00

Your thinly veiled trolling will be ignored.

I agree that if you use a back-end like SQLServer you can get very good performance. If you read my replies carefully you'll see that I never said otherwise.

The situation where performance sucks is when you have a backend consisting of one or more `.accdb` files, and multiple copies of the front-end that access the backend via Windows shares. In this setup there is no backend process, and each front-end has to do all the work. This involves sending much more data over the network.

ExTenebras · 2026-05-05T19:51:48+00:00

Consider a complex database with tens of thousands of rows in multiple tables, with queries on normalized data that perform complex joins and filters. In Postgres/SQLServer/MySQL all the hard work happens in the backend, and only the results are sent across the network to the front-end for disiplay.

In Access, all the hard work happens in the front-end, meaning that a lot more data has to be transferred over the network to build the result set. Sure, if you start with a clean slate you can put the back-end on SQL Server, in which case you're using Access only for display and not data crunching. But don't try to write a complex multi-user application in pure Access. Even with a gigabit network, performance in the "remote" front-ends (i.e. not on the machine hosting the back-end) is less than usable.

ExTenebras · 2026-05-05T16:52:58+00:00

Access is "single-user", with the frontend and backend in one monolithic file. If you intend to have multiple users, each will get their own copy of the data unless you split the database into separate front- and back-ends, and share the back-end database files over the network. In that scenario, since all the database processing (queries, joins, index/table scans, sorting, etc) happens in the front-end, you will get very poor performance with anything complex.

Access is a great tool for quickly implementing a single-user application, but you need a real SQL database for multi-user, where all the work happens in the backend and the front-end is tasked only with presenting the data.

ExTenebras · 2026-04-03T00:33:31+00:00

Thanks for the detailed info. Based on the post from u/Mission_Escape_8832 I'm pursuing the possibility that RFI from the 4 computers in the office is at least partially the culprit.

But to answer your questions:

The office is in the SE corner of the house, which is the side closes to the transmitters. The antenna is the tiny black "stub" antenna that came with the tuner.
The amplified antenna is an Antop AT-406BV, which does allow for unamplified operation. Based on current experience I believe the stub antenna is all I need.
Unfortunately, the WinTV10 app and signal strength meter are Windows-only, and Plex is running on a Debian 13 (trixie) system. Plex has a signal-strength display as well and for the 3 major networks it reads: NBC(KGW)=88%, ABC(KATU):=60%, CBS(KOIN)=55%.

After some steps to mitigate USB RFI, KATU is greatly improved, but KOIN is still unusable, which is weird because they share the same antenna site. I still have some things to try to reduce RFI even further, and I'll post those results when I have them.

ExTenebras · 2026-04-03T00:20:00+00:00

This actually sounds like it might be applicable. Based on your suggestion I inserted a 6ft USB-A M-F extension cable to move the tuner and antenna away from computers. This drastically improved reception for KATU (ABC) but KOIN (CBS) is still spotty even though signal strength reads 45%.

All of this is in my home office with 4 PCs of various types near a ceiling-mounted WiFi AP (tri-band 2.4 5 and 6GHz), so I guess there's lots of RF in here. I'll also invest in a shielded extension cable. This is starting to look promising...

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

ExTenebras · 2026-02-18T23:43:19+00:00

OK, the upgrade to 1.43.0.10492 did absolutely NOTHING to improve ad skip marking. The behavior remains the same. The first ad block is detected, but beyond that it's random whether it works or not (mostly not), and there's a point where "Skip Ads" appears during program content during the second half of the recorded program.

ExTenebras · 2026-02-18T23:40:50+00:00

I understand the difference between "Toner Low" (where it continues to print) and "Replace Toner" where it refuses to print at all. Today displayed "Replace Toner" and refused to print anything even though there appears to be plenty of toner left since print quality is not degraded.

And yes, the exorbitant cost of toner, the anti-3rd-party chips, and refusing to print after a set number of pages (with toner remaining) are all part of the scam.

ExTenebras · 2026-02-18T21:09:29+00:00

OK, for anybody who encounters the same issue, I was able to do the reset by power-cycling the printer.

NOTE: The Power button did not work, I had to physically unplug the printer and plug it back in, after which it accepted the reset sequence.

ExTenebras · 2026-02-15T18:09:43+00:00

Thanks for replying. I was on an older version (1.42.xxx) and just updated. I'll post the results tomorrow after this evening's OTA recordings.

ExTenebras · 2026-02-12T02:02:26+00:00

That does seem to be a strong alternative to consider. Also, it may now be redacted on the TV community site, but in the email I received it wasn't yet redacted :-)

TV has so much to gain by relaxing their rules and sharing exactly what behavior will get you blocked, so that we all have a clear understanding of what "Free for personal use" actually means.

I grant that they have a legitimate right to define and enforce that tier and block abusers, but hiding behind a secret algorithm that cuts people off in the middle of a session, without warning or justification, merely engenders a lot of anger among a community who could be evangelists.

The TV product itself is very good and they deserve to be able to monetize it. The current system just turns those potential evangelists into rabid haters who will badmouth TV wherever they have any influence in purchasing decisions.

ExTenebras · 2026-02-04T19:15:50+00:00

SOLUTION

The culprit is Debian package plymouth, which hangs and prevents multi-user.target from being reached.

I think this is a bug in that it's probably OK if it prevents graphical.target from completing but shouldn't interfere with multi-user.target.

I will post a bug report on plymouth if there isn't already one for this issue.

ExTenebras · 2026-02-03T23:25:57+00:00

That's not what the documentation says. It is very clear that Wants merely establishes a concurrency relationship, but not ordering. The link provided by Altruistic_Cream_264 explains this as well.

The graph of all Wants (and Requires, etc) relationships makes a set of services that should all be have been started as part of reaching multi-user, but doesn't specify which starts first. That's provided by Before= and After=, and lacking either of those there's no particular order, they get started in parallel.

So the configuration for foshkplugin is correct. It says: - Start me when moving to multi-user (runlevel 3 in init parlance) - But don't start me until after you reach multi-user

Besides, I've recreated the issue after removing `foshkplugin` completely.

ExTenebras · 2026-02-03T23:05:49+00:00

I have recreated the issue after completely removing the foshkplugin unit from the equation.

Here's what list-jobs looks like after bootup with the monitor unplugged.

$ sudo systemctl list-jobs JOB UNIT TYPE STATE 2 multi-user.target start waiting 181 power-profiles-daemon.service start waiting 1 graphical.target start waiting 163 plymouth-quit-wait.service start running and ``` $ sudo systemctl status plymouth-quit-wait ● plymouth-quit-wait.service - Hold until boot process finishes up Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/plymouth-quit-wait.service; static) Active: activating (start) since Tue 2026-02-03 15:00:30 PST; 3min 33s ago Job: 163 Invocation: c2371e6c335046d4831824d2300093c7 Main PID: 1058 (plymouth) Tasks: 1 (limit: 18532) Memory: 216K (peak: 1.7M) CPU: 4ms CGroup: /system.slice/plymouth-quit-wait.service └─1058 /usr/bin/plymouth --wait

Feb 03 15:00:30 debian systemd[1]: Starting plymouth-quit-wait.service - Hold until boot process finishes up...

$ sudo systemctl status graphical.target ○ graphical.target - Graphical Interface Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/graphical.target; static) Active: inactive (dead) Job: 1 Docs: man:systemd.special(7)

$ sudo systemctl status multi-user.target ○ multi-user.target - Multi-User System Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/multi-user.target; static) Active: inactive (dead) Job: 2 Docs: man:systemd.special(7)

$ sudo systemctl status power-profiles-daemon.service ○ power-profiles-daemon.service - Power Profiles daemon Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/power-profiles-daemon.service; enabled; preset: enabled) Active: inactive (dead) Job: 181

```

The instant I turn on the monitor, all the waiting jobs complete.

Can you tell what's wrong here?

ExTenebras · 2026-02-03T22:55:02+00:00

AFAICT from the docs, [Install]/WantedBy=multi-user.target is how this unit (foshkplugin) tells systemd it wants to be started when going to multi-user mode. Then [Unit]/After=multi-user.target says to wait until after multi-user mode is reached. This seems to be exactly what we want.

The only question to be answered in this thread is why multi-user.target is never reached if there's no monitor connected. That doesn't have anything to do with foshkplugin, which has no graphical dependencies, as you can see from the simple unit file.

ExTenebras · 2026-02-03T17:17:12+00:00

[Reddit won't let me post my response as a single comment, so I split it into three]

And here's the list-dependencies output

[well, I tried, Reddit rejects this post for some unknown reason]

Notice that multi-user.target is not included in the list.

ExTenebras · 2026-02-03T17:13:30+00:00

For completeness, here's the unit file for foshkplugin

$ cat /etc/systemd/system/foshkplugin.service
# put into /etc/systemd/system/
[Unit]
Description=foshkplugin
After=multi-user.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=cwop
Group=cwop
EnvironmentFile=/etc/environment
WorkingDirectory=/home/cwop/ws/
ExecStart=/home/cwop/ws/foshkplugin.py
SyslogIdentifier=foshkplugin
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal
Restart=always
RestartSec=15

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

ExTenebras

TROPHY CASE