Advice on proper Setup File sharing etc

[sphear]

Hello All,

I just took on a client who has "major" filemaker issues and no budget to purchase anything new. Here is the scenario. Workgroup network. 7 workstations. Filemaker Pro 5.5 installed on all systems. There is one Main server w2k, but it is just fucctioning as a Workstation.

Is there a difference between FileMaker running in a shared network workgroup and File Maker server?

Curently the Filemaker database files are on a shared drive on the network, where all shared files in teh office are stored. People have shortcuts on theri desktops to the shared databases. A script on the "server" starts up all the shared databases each morning.

Is this an improper setup?

I have worked in an AppleShare environment where this seemed to work fine, but using FM 4.

People seem to have many connection problems. Shared Databases will seemingly randomly say that they are not shared and can't be open.

What is the proper way to set up Filemaker if this is off base.

If this is one of those redundant newbie questions Can someone please point me to a good link that explains this setup.

Thanks in Advance