I am developing an Access 2016 application that connects to SQL Server. It is for use within our corporate LAN only. All users have Office 365 with Access included.
All workstations have security restrictions that prevent them from installing applications, so my plan was to place the ACCDE file on a shared folder on the LAN. My question is - what do I do about the ODBC DSN?
- I was going to write code to recreate the DSN locally each time, but workstation security restrictions would prevent that code from running.
- I was going to store the DSN file in the same folder as the application, but that file is a plain text file and can be easily read. That would be a bad security practice.
- I found a link to a site that tells you how to convert your linked tables to ones using 'DSN-less' connections, but that seems like a lot of complexity, fraught with error. (http://www.accessmvp.com/djsteele/DSNLessLinks.html)
- As part of my testing I put the ACCDE on the LAN and deleted all my DSNs. It still worked! Perhaps Access 2016 only requires a DSN when you're initially setting up the table? Do I actually need a DSN when deploying an ACCDE?
I would be keen to hear of any recommendations on how to configure DSNs so I can correctly and securely deploy this application to the LAN.
Kind thanks in advance.
Barry