[AccessD] Monitoring concurrent connactions to the BE?

Hello, all.  I've got a client who's running a homegrown Access app. 
I probably don't even need to continue, you KNOW it's going to end up
badly.  ;)

I'll ask my main question up front:  is there a utility that will
allow me to track the number of concurrent connections that are being
made to a .mdb back-end?  I need to know what the peak number of
concurrent connections is for a given file, and I need to know what
time frame that peak takes place in.

Now, those of you who enjoy case studies can read the rest.

THE PROBLEM: The FE's are locking up, forcing users to exit and
re-enter the app.  Records that were being viewed, added or edited at
the time of the lock-up sometimes disappear and have to be re-keyed. 
Sometimes a record that was keyed in successfully will turn up
missing later.

THE SETUP: The back-end is an Access 2003 .mdb file about 500MB in
size.  Yes, even after compressing.  The front-end is an Access 2003
.mde file with links directly to the back-end.

THE INSTALL BASE:  The FE is installed on 40-ish desktops locally,
with another 40-ish users accessing the app via Terminal Services. 
All in all, there are 80-ish potential connections to the back-end. 
And frankly, this is where I think the problem is.

THE USAGE PATTERN: The proscribed method of use is to add or update
records as one works during the day.

What is actually happening is that nobody uses the app at all until
about 4pm, when EVERYONE logs in to do all their CRUD operations for
the day.  On Friday, it is 4pm all day long as people hammer the
system to get things into the db that they blew off during the week.

MY TAKE:  The idea that 80 concurrent connections would slow or
outright freeze an Access app makes sense.  The idea that if you'd
lose your record if Access froze in the middle of keying it makes
sense, if less so; they're using bound forms, so I'd expect that
whatever portion of the record was keyed pre-freeze would be saved. 
The idea that successfully keyed-in records would disappear at some
unknown time between now and (for example) next week makes NO sense
to me, however.  If it's in, it's in, right?  Even 255 concurrent
connections won't cause data to be deleted.  Someone has to
explicitly delete it (even if they don't know they're deleting it),
correct?

WHAT I'M CHECKING:  For the 'records get keyed in then disappear'
issue I have made sure that warnings are turned on, and that there
isn't any code turning them off without turning them back on.  That
eliminates the possibility that people are fat-fingering the Del key
and killing records without knowing it.  I have also checked their
settings; Default Record Locking is set to No Locks.

WHAT I WANT:  I want a utility that will let me track the number of
concurrent connections that are being made to the back-end at any
given time.  In addition to knowing what the peak number of
connections is, I want a way to know at what time that peak is hit. 
I want to see the connection count increasing, up the peak, and
decreasing as people log off.  I need to pinpoint the period of
heaviest load.

Now, before anyone suggests it, I have already counseled the client
to move to SQL Server and to their credit, that project is on the
schedule!  My immediate concern is to keep their Access app alive and
useful until the transition to SQL takes place - the app is
absolutely mission-critical.

NOTE:  a discussion of why my client deployed a hobbyist's first app
in a mission-critical role is best left for a different day (although
I suspect it's a matter of stepping over dollars to pick up dimes).

-Christopher Hawkins-
www.christopherhawkins.com