iwbyte

Thanx for the reply - i did check those three items, and they all check out ok. What's odd is that A can share with b or C if B or C originally opens the file, - i.e. it can be a guest, but not a host. There's no firewall on this machine, but that's a good idea to check for - its beind a hardware NAT router like the other machines. Our last-ditch effort is to upgrade to win2k and see if a fresh OS install will help. its a 3 year old pc so it might be due for an upgrade anyway.

I'm having a similar issue as Armand: I have three winMe (i know, I know) boxes, call them A, B, C the file is located on the hard drive of A. If I open the DB on A, then nobody else can open it (even tho it is marked as shared/multi-user) If I open the DB on B, opening it over the network via windows file sharing, then A and/or C can also open it via filemaker's 'hosts' button. If I open the DB on C, opening it over the network via windows file sharing, then A and/or B can also open it via filemaker's 'hosts' button. All three have the my documents folder shared, but I also tried it w/out sharing. If I create a brand new database from scratch, and try to share it from A, it fails to show up in the 'hosts' window. Any ideas?