Depending on your circumstances, you may be able to utilise the JET Database engine from Microsoft too - this makes it possible to access data from other sources - web pages, vbscript and iirc the likes of excel.

Of course, you *might* be able to utilise the free SQL Server express edition to accomplish what you want (I've not played with SQL Express since it came out - my mind is a little rusty.)

The webmonkey in me simply suggests setting up a webserver and some form of web script (ASP / .NET / PHP) and utilising ODBC back to the source database.  No need for access to be installed at all, plus the adding bonus of sending out a URL to all and sundry to access.

Of course, this assumes you have the capacity to drop this in place and all machines are connected back in real time to the central source of the data (no offline usage here)

- I've certainly accomplished this before in the past using Windows, JET, ODBC and PHP pages (usually server via IIS).

Hope that helps.

zocsters suggestion sounds good - although there could be issues for you if you want to restrict what users can and can't alter. 

When money is tight go for the free version :D

http://www.openoffice.org/

More specifically ->http://why.openoffice.org/images/base-big.png

itxtme:

When money is tight go for the free version :D

http://www.openoffice.org/

More specifically ->http://why.openoffice.org/images/base-big.png