Need help at the firestation here

[Anon]

Hi,

Currently we are running MS Exchange Server and we are using MS Office 97. We use Access for making our databases. We are connected on a nice intranet. We have several stations across the city. The city is nice enough to give us internet access as well. All on T1's or TDSL lines. I'm not sure excactly which. Well I am looking at info to make things easier for us. We have rig checks to do. Those have to be sent downtown to the Chief Mechanic. What is best way to do this ? Could make web based forms. Or can I use Outlook and have email based forms? Just looking for all the different ways to get this done. And find out which is best for us. Can I have email based forms and have that info automatically update the main database ? We would also like to work on a few other things and make transfer from paper to computer.

Thank you,

Bryan Stedman
262-635-7915

[rleonen]

I don't know how familiar you are with PHP and MySQL but you might want to consider using these to create a web based database that could be updated through a browser. It's pretty easy to set up. You could upload your current data as comma delimited text files. A db set up in this manner has the advantage of real time updates reflected to all users. PHP and MySQL are open source so the only cost involved would be the ISP. As long as your table structure isn't too involved, you could set up a db pretty quickly. I use dbwired.com for hosting and have found them to be affordable and reliable.