Panther and Unlimited

[kkk]

All,

We are using FileMakerUnlimited 6.0v4 with WebCompanion 6.0v2 on MacOSX 10.28 server. We are having problems with intermittent "unexpectedly quit" messages when accessed via web. I have been following threads about "unexpected quit" but have not found any "definite" solutions on MacOSX. Some have mentioned that they have found stability after upgrading to Panther.

Would users of FileMakerUnlimited on Panther tell me what they found in terms of stability. Has upgrading to Panther server gotten rid of "unexpectedly quit" messages.

Thank you,

Ken

[Ugo DI LUCA]

Hi,

Not sure this would be of any help, but browsing a French list today, I found something which I thought I should translate and post. This answer was posted by Robert Sarly from Paisley software (http://www.paisley-software.com), answering to someone facing unexpected quit on Panther.

"On Panther it is very important to look at the cables. FileMaker and FMS

use ultra-fast 10/100 that exploit the all 8's cable of the server.

If you don't respect the order, you may face unexepected quit.

The Order

|| Pin_1= Orange/White

|| Pin_2 = Orange

|| Pin_3 = Green/White

|| Pin_4 = Blue

|| Pin_5 = Blue/White

|| Pin_6 = Green

|| Pin_7 = Brown/White

|| Pin_8 = Brown

||

|| The order should be looked at on the opposite of the clip from the RJ45 plug, and the 2 ends of the cables must be in that same order.

This order is the same than for the Gigabyte, except than for these later, the cables must be of category 6

As I said, I'm not sure if it can help anyone, just translating...

[Leb i Sol]

UGO!

don't be lead by some crazy article

2 possible things here:

1) Robert was Drunk on 'vino' when he wrote the article

2) FM made a crapy product that is not compliant with networking/cabeling standards

""On Panther it is very important to look at the cables. FileMaker and FMS

use ultra-fast 10/100 that exploit the all 8's cable of the server. If you don't respect the order, you may face unexepected quit."

---this is very bad statement/suggestion in Networking World....so in other words we would have to rebuild the Entire World tel. line structure to accomodate FM on DSL...please.

The order does matter but FM does not "exploit" not "ultrafast" anything out of it!

DSL comes in on 1 pair (2 wires) through the phone line into your router.....by what fact is using all 4 pairs on CAT5 will "improve performance" from your Machine to the 1 pair of wires running into WAN?

CAT5 - in reality a machine uses only 2 pairs for 10/100 (4 wires) hence the expression "splitting pairs".(I cable-4 wires per PC)

What is could be is:

FM FedUp with OS comp.

bad network cards

bad cable (the crutial pins not connected)

port conflicts on the network

etc.

anything but as advised

he got one thing stright ....568-B is the standard and required use for Gig level....but to whome can u serve at that level at this point in time.

http://students.ulv.edu/~zilica/howto.html

now, the fact that we are growing spiders for their webs definetly speeks somethinng about phiberoptics and where we are going with it all...anyhow just a few thoughts to consider before messing with your cables and wasting time...quick 1 sec check willl resolve the cable mistery...I would be more worried about the server config. and the hardware...

Take Care!

[aphid]

I've been having problems with my CDML queried databases quitting unexpectedly as well in--it was the primary impetus for joining this forum today. I had understood that the new Web Companion and Enabler were supposed to address this problem, but it's gotten progressively worse for me, now cutting out more than once a day. I already replaced the WC/E with new copies, to no avail. I am about ready to try loading FMPU in OS 9 and seeing if it is more stable there (as indicated elsewhere)--but I hate going backwards! I replaced the files this morning with an updated version and am crossing my fingers. The other thing I had read was the suggestion that the error message when no records are found in a search should return 401, and my error page does use this. Right now I'm at a loss too. The wiring thing, I agree, should be far fetched, but coincident with getting new eMacs running Panther to serve FMPS and FMPU, we also upgraded our network to Cat-6. We periodically had problems with OS 8.5.1, but nothing like we have today.

Cheers!

g

[Steve T.]

Hi, aphid! Frustrating isn't it? I do not think there is a single answer to all these problems everyone is having. Corrupted databases, version to version upgrades, interrupted tasks, memory leaks, permissions, etc. can probably be found to be the cause for unexpected quits for various people in various situations.

If you're a tech person, try checking the OS X crash logs. I recently read one that helped me discover (eventually, I had to research what some of the terms/codes were) that we had a major permissions problem such that our "admin" group could not write to the boot drive and did not even show up from the command line (/Volumes). I was going to try to fix settings from root, but decided it'd be too iffy to decide what exctly needed to be changed so I'm just going to re-format another computer and move all the server stuff to that until I can figure this out. Ironically, our other FMP web server is busier and only goes down rarely (< 1/month) and it isn't an Unexpected Quit... it's a CPU resources over consumption problem (0.0% idle). I'll try to post in a couple of weeks to give a progress report. --ST

[Leb i Sol]

Hello people!

I just have discovered one odd thing...on win platform but it might be of help/consideration. Win 2000 pro- the system's "time stamp" seems to develop a "lag" so in a period of a 3-4 weeks the system's time is "late" for almost an hour...( never saw this in my life)...I wonder if MF has buitin "scheduling" (open-close-backup ets) OR is it based on system time OR even a combination of both. We open/server files on daily basis but every so often I found file NOT being served -except the "web-related"(_Web Fields(Users,Security).fp5) DBs...

Other things that corsed my mind:

Does FM create a .lck files?

Does FM "reserve" memory useage- perhaps it does not do a dump/flush on exit....meaning that "too much memory in user -> close the files in order to run backup......forget to open them after".

I know that win platform can be "tuned" for application or service memory pageing...the issue would clasifing FM running as "service" or "applicaion"

...anyhow, I know this is windows related but just a few more things to consider in your log snoops.

All the best!