Ok here's my problem

I need to create a database that is accessable online.

I'm making a player classification database. I need to enter information about a player and and make that information available online to a select group. I need to update the database every time we get a new player (possibly 30 times a day). It needs to hold at least 1,000,000 entries.

I need as much information as possible as to where I can get it or where I can get info on something like this.

I created a database like this on access but I think the database was getting to big ( I had like 3500 entries and 2 gb, because of the player pics I had on there)and I don't know if I could put it online with access.

Any help would be great as you can tell I don't know much about it.....yet

Access is not a good idea for databases of this size, it is (or used to be) not stable with large files, lots of users or getting large fields (read images).

Suggest trying a hosting company with MySQL database, but ask in the MySQL forum about the ease of using MySQL to get files out of (I think its easy). Or a (usually) more expensive option would be to find a hosting company which supports SQL Server.

Both of these options are going to be quite expensive for decent hosting with that size database. You may want to consider Co-locating your own server if the costs are too much, though this is expensive in itself.

Definately...you would want to go with a higher-end DBMS, such as MS SQL Server.

As far as web hosting with ASP, ASP.NET, and SQL Server support, I use brinkster.com. They offer a vast amount of services, and I feel they are very reasonably priced for what you get.

The brinkster.com knowledge base is helpful for procedures and sample code to get things started. Plus their live online help chat is very handy too.

Check out http://www.brinkster.com/AboutSolutionComparison.asp to view the different hosting solution levels.

Kael

EDIT:

Oh geez...I just realized you mentioned you had over 2 GB of data? Well...going with a commercial on line web service would be a very expensive endeavor because you will have to pay for all that SQL Server space, in addtion to montly data transfer.

If cost is a factor...maybe you want to try splitting up your Access database into multiple databases. Then you can either use UNION queries to query more than one table at the same time and/or do conditional database connection strings to different databases based on certain condtions. You will still have to pay a bit for additional hard drive web space, but those costs are a lot cheaper than porting it over to SQL Server and using that space for the database.

HTH!

Kael

I still think you have three obvious choices for your current situation;

• Seriously reconsidering the amount of data you NEED online
• Co-location of your own server and software (not too expensive for the advantage)
• Hosting your own server, and buying a dedicated line; small sites should run fine on a BT leased line with ~128kb both ways.

If your site is bigger (bigger - read more traffic rather than data) then option 2 is most likely the best, usless you have a big budget for bandwidth and want to host on your own site.

However.....

I however think that removing the images from the database would be a much, much better idea. Access is notoriously slow at getting stuff like pictures out of itself. Is there any REAL reason to store them in the database?

Instead, store a link to the picture in the table, and store a physical file. It will also have the advantage of being faster. Doing this also exponentially increases the amount of hosting options you have; you can now reduce your database size significantly and just get a hosting with (say) 2gb storage and a more sensible sized SQL Server DB (say 250mb). This would allow you enough space I think (if most of your stuff in the DB is pictures - which figures for 3500 entries).

Also, you may now find your db is more responsive performance wize; depending on its size. Though I highly advise not using access in sites which get alot of traffic; another notorious problem of access is multiple users connecting to it.

I have used http://www.exahost.co.uk for my hosting; they supply hosting solutions including SQL Server Databases. I have however had problems with my server being down for long (28hour) periods unnanouncced and with no explaination; so this is only a suggestion. If you want advice from someone who should know about hosting largish database driven sites; ask Paul - the guy who owns/runs dbforums (his nick is Paul supprisingly), I don't think he'd mind you PM'ing him.

Whatever database you use, if the pictures are ALLOWED to be viewed by anybody, I would not store them in the database. Rather just store the filenames of the images.