Database size

Yes most hosts have a limit of around 10MB. This is because web servers have disk systems for fast reading, databases need fast reading and writing

If you have large Access databases on a web server it places strain on the server and slows down all the websites on that server.

This is why SQL Server and mySQL are usually separate from the web server using a very different physical system to that of the web server.

Your only option would be to delete most of the posts from your forum, or look to migrate to SQL Server.

The Access version is only intended for very small forums with just a handful of users or for pre-production testing.

An access DB is really just one large file. Deleting information from it doesn't actually remove space from the file, it just flags the space as unusable.They always grow larger.

The MS Access program has tools to compact and repair the data base - which basically re-writes and re-indexes it without all the unusable space. You can also compact and repair an access db with an asp script. - Google: compact access database with asp.

This may or may not reduce the db size to acceptable limits for the server. It will improve end user response performance.

Your ultimate solution is to migrate to MSSql. MySql is an option but complicates the migration process even more.

EDIT: Whether you use the MS Access program, or an asp script, shut down the forum and back up the db first. Having users update the db while compacting is not good.

I have done all that but thanks guys. Even if i clear out alot of old posts it won't do much good for long.

I need to convert. Can someone point me in the right direction for this please?

thanks

I have significant experience with MS Access database scalability.

The only hard limits are 2GB in overall size...and the maximum number of concurrent connections. When too many people connect at once, the IIS connection/Access DB will crash. The only way to resolve this is to restart the IIS Application pool that the site is in.

Ideally, you would want to use SQL Server instead of access. However, I have a heavily used web application with multiple concurrent users that is 1.55GB in size. It works just fine (except for some sporadic crashes due to too many connections). This database has been in production for 8 years.

If your host is limiting you to a maximum of 5MB, I would definately recommend switching providers. That arbitrary limit is ridiculous. It would only make sense if the server were ridiculously overloaded with resource intensive sites. A 30MB Access file should NOT be a problem for them.

On one of my servers, I'm running old school technology (Dual 2.8 Xeon) with RAID1 15 SCSI drives...and I can tell you that one database (at 30mb) will have a negligible affect on resource usage. That is absolutely the case...unless the applications are coded poorly. Then all bets are off. By putting sites into isolated application pools web hosts should be able to tell who is the culprit eating resources on their servers.

That being said, I run my own servers and have RDP access to restart the site application pool in the very rare case that the connection crashes.