Hello All,
We are currently running Access and VB for our company database and are AROUND 13 computers connected to the server. We plan on expanding our office and our NEW office is close to 150 yards from where our present office is. I wanted help on deciding how we should connect to the server, we ll have a few computers in the new building too. The server is located in our main officeWell, what options are you considering?

I could spend lots of your money and suggest a fiber optic feed (fastest and most secure), or you MAY be able to use something like what's in THIS link (it's an advertisement, but I am in no way connected to anyone who would benefit from whatever decsion you make).

The idea is that, theoretically, ethernet can only extend 100 - 120 meters, before one needs to link to a router or some such.

Perhaps better qualified people will tell you the few extra meters will be no problem.These were the issues we were debating on and also on how the internet connection should be taken.
Having TWO separate connections in both office or set up a booster on the roof and would that help getting internet in the other office too?

I will have a look at the link you posted and look for other alternatives too..The link is just to give you an idea of something else that might be out there.  I was going to suggest a radio link -- looks like you're considering that, too.

Are there phone lines between the buildings?  Or, "spare" (open/available/not being used) phone lines?We should be having spare phone lines, we still have not moved in to the new office but should be very soonHow mission-critical will communications be between the two buildings?  If your business will depend on high availability, then cutting corners (praying a Cat5E run will do the job, for example) would be false economy.  Other than fibre, you could consider ethernet extension, long range wireless ethernet bridges or VPN over ADSL (at both buildings).  Factor in resilience, speed and security to the extent that they are priorities for your business.

Incidentally, Access is going to cause you problems with that many users unless you have networking at a good speed to all endpoints.  It's not very tolerant of high latency.  In any event, at this stage I would seriously consider putting the backend onto a real database server.  MS SQL would be fine (if you've got it).  MySQL and Postgresql are obvious options if you want a free (but enterprise-grade) solution.  Migrating the backend is a lot easier than it sounds.  You can still keep your Access-designed frontend.I would have to agree with Rob. Access is a nice program but limited. It sounds like your needs are growing and it would be a good idea to make a change to which DB you use.

We dont have MS SQL Server yet, but were thinking of getting that done.. Need to discuss that with the IT department here, do you have any set of rules/ideas which should be followed or kept in mind during the migration process. I have not done it myself so any help on how to go about it would be appreciated.
ThanksNot too difficult, as I said.  If you don't have MS SQL server, SAVE yourself some licensing costs and install MySQL on one of your boxes.  Then you'll need the MySQL ODBC connectors on all the client machines.  There's plenty of community and commercial support available for MySQL now and your TCO is virtually guaranteed to be lower than with MS SQL.

Plenty of info out there on migrating from Access backends to MySQL.  Google knows.