Preparing for Internet or Intranet Synchronization

Before you can synchronize over the Internet or an intranet, you must properly configure your Internet or intranet server and Replication Manager. The following steps discuss how to prepare for Internet or intranet synchronization:

1. Set up your Internet or intranet server with operating system and server software. For example, you can use Windows NT Server 4.0 with Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS).
   
   
2. Install Microsoft Access and Replication Manager on the Internet or intranet server. Replication Manager runs on Intel® server platforms only and supports the Microsoft Internet Information Server and Netscape server platforms. Internet proxy servers are not supported.
   
   
3. Create a replica on the Internet or intranet server and manage it by using Replication Manager. This will “stamp” the replica with information about the Internet or intranet server’s HTTP address and other internal system information.
   
   
4. Create a copy of the replica (you can use the Windows Explorer to do this) and distribute this copy to your users. When they open the replica in Microsoft Access and synchronize, they will be able to synchronize back to the replica on the Internet or intranet server by using the automatically configured HTTP address.

Note Some Internet providers may require you to stop and restart Replication Manager and/or the communications connection if synchronization is canceled before it is complete.

The procedure above describes the easiest way to confirm that you have set up your Internet or intranet server and your Microsoft Access application for replication. Once you have the system working, you may decide you do not need to install the full version of Microsoft Access on the Internet or intranet server, but only the run-time version of Microsoft Access that is included with Microsoft Office 97, Developer Edition (ODE). If you decide to use only the run-time version, you can install it on the Internet or intranet server by using the ODE Setup Wizard to create a custom Setup program for the Microsoft Access application that you want to replicate. When you’re creating the Setup program, make sure you select the Microsoft Replication Manager and Microsoft Access Run-Time Version redistributable components. When you run the custom Setup program on the Internet or intranet server, it will extract only the files you need and create the correct registry settings.

Note The ODE Setup Wizard is the recommended tool for installing your application on an Internet or intranet server because it automatically updates the system for you. For example, the Setup program created by the Setup Wizard updates registry settings for you. Updating these entries manually is complex and prone to error, particularly with regard to Internet settings and versions of system DLLs that interact with other applications. If you manually copy your application and associated files to the server, you must also update system settings such as registry entries. For this reason, we strongly recommend you use the ODE Setup Wizard to create a Setup program for the application.

See Also For more information about preparing for Internet or intranet synchronization, see “Setting Up an Internet or Intranet Server for Replication” in the Microsoft Replication Manager Help file.