Performance & Multi-User Issue

[kimo]

Hello folks,

I have a couple of issues w/ FM 5.5 running an invoice solution on 4 computers connected via 10/100 switch with cat5 cables. Maybe somebody has come accross this and can help me out.

The invoice solution consist of 6 files; Main.db5,Invoice.db5,LineItem.db5,Customer.db5,inventory.db5 and payment.db5. All files have Multi-User activated and reside on the Dell Xeon PC shared folder.

The hardware consist of 4 computers; Dell Pentium 4 w/XP, Dell Xeon/XP, Generic Pentium 3/ XP and Generic Pentium 2 /Win98.

First Issue.

When I open the solution from the Dell Xeon PC, I can not open the any of the above files from any of the remaining computers on my net.

I get the "can not open the files beacuse they are not set to multi-user or can't find the server" error.

If I open the solution from say the Dell Pentium 4 first, then I can successfully open from the remaining PC's on the net including the Dell Xeon.

Second Issue.

When printing invoices from any of the above mention computers it takes anywere from 10 to maybe 15 seconds to get the preview screen to come up on the screen. This may not seem a lot but when printing 10 to 30 invoices a day this is a painfully slow. Some of the invoices may have 1 to 100+ line items. I've also notice is slow when navigating betwen invoices that have the lines items plus the invoice totals display on the screen. It's relatively fast when I navigate between invoices in a list view not showing line items.

[Kurt Knippel]

First of all how are you opening the files on the guests? Are you navigating to a shared drive? If so this is probably the biggest cause of your problems. Opening Filemaker databases via file sharing is a recipe for disaster.

Always open all of the files first on the "host" computer, then all guests should open Filemaker Pro, go to the File Menu -> Open -> Hosts. Now you should see the databases and they can be opened.

Doing the above may also solve your performance issue. However, though you have a small workgroup, you may find it worthwile to invest in a copy of Filemaker Server and dedicate a machine to this. While you might think that this will cost alot, the costs are nothing compared to the gains in productivity that you are likely to gain.

[kimo]

captkurt,

Yes, the guest access the files via a shared drive on the host pc. Will try your recommendation.

I'm looking into ther server version. I know NT or 2000 is required for the server version, do you know if it would work on XP as server?

[Kurt Knippel]

No, Filemaker Server requires Windows NT or 2000.