What does filemaker server do?

[hartmut77]

Hello

I am a novice and my employer would like to have our filemaker files speeded up.

We are now using 17 macs on OS 9 with version 4.1 of Filemaker

We want to use panther and go to Filemaker 6

and we want to run all our computers together using filemaker on TCP/IP

What will Filemaker Server do for us.

Do we just use FM server and all is automatic?

Is there a speed increase or do we have to use a Hardware Apple server as well

Thanks,

Dave

[jfmcel]

FM server is faster (alot) and more automated (backups are a synch).

It is questionable whether you gain any stability using Server on OS X, although I can't say that I've heard of any problems with the most recent update.

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Gelobt sei was nicht hart macht.

[Vaughan]

A few observations about speed: nothing is faster than having the FMP file on your local hard disk. Nothing. But that's only useful for single-user databases.

Once you go to multiple users there will be a network between the users and the databases. In this case, the *worst* scenario is putting the FMP files on a network shared volume. (Not only is it slow, it leads to long term deep rooted corruption of the files.) The next best is a dedicated host computer running the normal version of FMP. The fastest is FileMaker Server, and it has the added advantage of on-the-fly backups. But even FMS is "slow" compared to having the file on the local drive. But it's the best.

[hartmut77]

Thanks for the input. It is appreciated

Dave