multi-user lockout of linked excel spreadsheet

Hello all,
I have an issue I thought was resolved and now it has
raised it ugly head
again. This issue is in regards to permissions set on an
excel spreadsheet
that is linked into an access database. This table holds
some valuable
information that is the core of relating data in two
databases or as we call
it a map table. On previous versions of this tool (the
database) I was able
to solve this permission issue by setting myself with
admin right and the
world with read rights. But with the current version the
tool seems to take
ownership when the data from this table is displayed in a
form. The reason
for this thinking stems from the following observation. If
I open the
spreadsheet externally and then display the table from
within the tool, no
errors, but if I first display from within the tool, and
then try to open
the spreadsheet externally, it seems to lock and I get the
message "Cannot
access 'file name'". My problem is not with me needing to
open the
spreadsheet external to the database but with the need to
have multi-user
access this spreadsheet by use of this tools normal
operation. I have also
coordinated with other users and they or me have been
locked out from
querying on the this map table at which point we get the
error # 3051 which
states "file open by other user exclusively or need
permissions". Like I
said before this file is set to read only and I am the
only user with admin
rights. So any ideas on how to solve this problem would be
much appreciated.
My next step is to also run a make table on the data and
pull from that make
table, but there will be problems with that solution as to
when multiple
simultaneous probes on this data happen.
Thanks for your help
Tim Schiermeyer
PS- my system is win 2k