problems won't seem to go away

[algernonsidney]

We have been having numerous problems for well over a month now. We are still using Filemaker 4.1 and are storing the files on Novell Netware 5.0. Just today, two were brought to my attention. First, the program would not start on one PC for whatever reason. I deleted the font files, and then the program opened fine. This has occurred several times.

We are also having problems with one particular file. I have told the user to try re-creating the file and then importing all the information. She has had to do recovers several times and has apparently lost some information.

I removed the programs several weeks ago and then re-installed them on the four users' machines. I would to love to think that was a solution. At the time, I did or at least hoped it was a solution.

One person suggested an upgrade, but giving more money to this software company doesn't excite me that much. I am also not sure if we have the money.

I have had at least a dozen "last times" with this program now. I am now wondering if it can ever be fixed.

Chris

[Anatoli]

FileMaker on Novell? Never heard about it. Why don't you use small Windows machine as FM server?

What do you want to "fix"?

FM is happy with any Windows and almost any Macs; also server is running great on Linux.

Storing files on some NetWare volume is strangest thing I've ever encountered.

[Vaughan]

I think Chris means that the files are shared on a Novell server.

Chris, get them off the network file server to stop the corruption from happening again. (Getting them off the server won't fix your current woes, however.)

Set up a FM Host computer -- a cpu running FM Server (or a normal FMP client if you cannot get Server). Get all the FMP files off the Netware box (remove them, all of them, and all the rogue copies on users hard disks too) and open the databases on the FM box. Then teach the users how to open the files through the Open Remote... command (or even better make opener files).

If you can though, get FM Server: it automates file backup without even needing to down the service. Plus lots of other advantages.

[algernonsidney]

I don't think we really want to get FileMaker server. I have been on this job for almost ten months, and we really didn't have any Filemaker problems for the first seven or eight months. The though of dishing out more money to the software company isn't very appealing right now. We don't have much money anyway. Ultimately, we would like things to work the way they did before these unexplained problems began occurring.

I think most of the problems are occuring with one file. Maybe we need to recreat it some way.

Chris

[cjaeger]

as vaugham said, you do not need fm server.

Simply open the database from one client from a local hard disk , turn on multiuser and operate on a second client.

But, on the other hand, the data can't be that important if you don't wnt to spend money on data safety

[Vaughan]

Your "unexplained" problems are caused by people accessing the FMP databases from a network shared volume. The solution is to host them on a computer running FMP or FMS.

I've met users who believed that daily crashes and restores were the norm for FMP (and they still liked it enough to keep using it!). Host the files properly however and both speed and reliability are improved enormously -- you'll never need to restore except perhaps after a server power failure.

The machine used to host the files need not have a speedy cpu, but a good fast hard disk is very desirable.

[Anatoli]

And now we are back to points I've made.

[algernonsidney]

Another guy at FileMaker yesterday suggested we get the server and an upgrade. Of course, this still doesn't explain why we had almost no problems for about seven months.

If the upgrade fails, do we get our money back?

Chris

[Vaughan]

<sigh> Over the last seven months your problems have been building, slowly but surely. Little bits of corruption in the files accumulating until FMP (which is pretty tolerant) can't cope any more.

You don't need to upgrade anything. Just set it up properly with a dedicated server.

[algernonsidney]

Lately, our crashes have been occuring when the user changes printers. If she has been printing to the 8000 printer all day and then decides to print a sheet to her 720 printer, it crashes. It crashes a lot when printing to Adobe Acrobat Distiller (to make PDF's).

I hope that narrows it down a little more.

I understand where everyone is coming from on the server and apologize for being a little defensive on this. We only have two people using the program, and the money just isn't there.

Chris

[algernonsidney]

Today the program crashed while in the process of sorting. All the crashes are occuring with one file in particular. It simply crashed and told her to do a recovery. She did the recovery, and it seems okay now.

Chris

[algernonsidney]

Last night, I tried compressing a lot of the files. They opened clean afterward. It's hard to tell why. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed.

Chris

[damyena]

I have had a few problems with FileMaker Pro 5.5 and a Novell Network drive. I've found that FileMaker really does act funny (crashing, hanging, locking up my Mac OS 9) when I open the files directly off of the Novell Volume.

My solution has been to copy the files to my local hard drive, modify the files and put them back. I am a developer and this works ok for me, but I know it will not work for your situation.

I am currently running FileMaker Server 5 to host all of the my solutions. I host to about 10 instances of FileMaker Pro 5.5. I have not had a problem. But, to help you more, I have also used FileMaker Pro's Remote Data Access Companion Plug-In (Provided with my version of FileMaker Pro 5.5). What this does, essentially, is make my running instance of FileMaker Pro into a mini FileMaker server. Through the Open Remote... command, my users can access the FileMaker files that are open on my 'mini-server.' So I need only one computer to sit there and host the files and all my other computers can access those files concurrently.

With this solution, I have not experienced any problems with changing printers or sorting. I have had a problem when the power plug was kicked out of the computer hosting the files. But, when I brought the files back up, FileMaker automatically performed an integrity check and they worked fine.

Investigate the solution of hosting the files using an instance of FileMaker Pro. This solution will be simple and economical for you.

Best of luck,

damyena