Finally found what appears to be the right place to ask this. Here's the setup... Win2K/Novell w/Groupwise network, FMPro v4.5. Two self-contained applications, albeit exactly the same, on fileserver. For legal/acct'g purposes MegaCorp maintains two minicorps but in same bldg and same fileserver.

1st staff for Company A use shortcut to launch "file opener" application in G:/server/dir/subdirA. 1st staff uses script button to open ALL related files and become HOST A, remaining staff Company A launch application becoming "guest" of HOST A. All is well.

1st staff for Company B use shortcut to launch "file opener" application in G:/server/dir/subdirB (same name different directory). 1st staff uses script button to open ALL related files and become HOST B, remaining staff Company B launch application becoming "guest" of HOST B. All is well.

Guest 2 of Host A (Guest 2A) crashes. Guest 2A reboots, activates "A" shortcut BUT filemaker calls up "B" file opener application as GUEST of "B".

Troubleshoot 1: Check shortcut - is OK. Shutdown all "A" users, bring one up in "A". "A" Shortcut calls up "B" file opener as GUEST of "B". Close data file. Manually FILE>OPEN>PATH:/"A" file opener. FMpro opens "B" file opener as GUEST of "B". Repeatable at 2nd station.

Troubleshoot 2: shutdown all "A" and "B". At "A" station, launch "A" shortcut. "A" file opener opens as HOST "A". Guests of "A" all open correctly. At "B" station, launch "B" shortcut. "B" file opener opens as HOST "B".

Troubleshoot 3: shutdown "A" and "B". At "B" station, launch "A" shortcut. "A" file opener opens. Close/Quit "A". At "B" station, launch "B" shortcut. "B" file opener opens as HOST "B". Go to "A" station and launch "A" shortcut. "B" file opener opens as GUEST of HOST "B".

So the question becomes... has anyone seen this? Does FMPro hunt for FIRST HOST it can find and become it's guest regardless of application requested?

thanks in advance

Yes. Filemaker cannot distinugish between the Contact.fp3 that was launched from path A from the Contact.fp3 that was launched from path B.

If you insist on this dual system, I would suggest that you rename all of your files so that they are each unique. Adding a simple letter to the beginning of each filename (a_Contact.fp3) would likely solve the problem. The Filemaker Developer Tool can assist with this as it can rename whole solutions, including all the relationships and scripts that use those filenames.

Thanks for the timely response. That was the way that it was appearing and I expected I would be putting FDTools to use. But howcumwhy Staff B was able to open and HOST B from the shortcut and NOT end up as GUEST A, whereas Staff A was NOT able to open and HOST A but did become GUEST B? One of those cosmic unanswerables?

Luck.

I'm surprised nobody has picked up that the files are being sharied via a file server (ie, network drive) not a FM host.

This is a guarantee for disaster... if it's been working well this long, you are VERY lucky.

On Windows FM is behaving differently than on Mac. On Windows 2 people cannot open the same database from OS as both Hosts. The first one becomes the host and the second by clicking on the same file from OS is connected like guest -- as it was done properly through Host button.

I do not like this way a bit, but it is as it is. IMHO it has to do something with Windows file locking.

But the original use has the file opened through the network (not on local hard disk) which is still a very bad thing.

All in all, not a good set up.

Sure, bad setup