Hi there, i'm attempting to set up a bunch of database solutions for my office of about 5 macs which are all on airport wireless. I have FM Pro 7, but wanted to know if I'm actually supposed to be using FM Server 7...which I didn't know existed until this morning. So, i downloaded the trial...and i'm a bit confused as to what to do with it now...basically, how do i access my database files and work with them now? Is each computer supposed to have FM Pro 7 AND FM Server 7?

I'm embarrassed that this is such a newbie question...perhaps if someone could let me know if there is a basic user's guide for FM Server 7, that'd be cool as well.

Banandy:

Welcome to the Forums. FM Server (if you even need it) would reside on one machine, along with your database files. The other (client) machines would have to each have a copy of FMP, and would access the data on the server via the Open Remote... command. However, FM Server is by no means a necessity. You say that you've got about 5 Macs. Well, you can put the files on one of those Macs, open them in FMP7 on that Mac, then set them to "multi-user", and voila!, that Mac is now the server. Each of your other Macs should be able to access those databases via File-->Open Remote...

There is a White Paper on FileMaker Server best practices at the FMI site (filemaker.com); much of what is covered there can also apply to hosting using FileMaker Pro.

There are a number of reasons you'd be better off using Server, but I don't think they apply to you. At the very least, you can use the setup I describe, and if you need the performance boost of using FM Server (and a dedicated server machine) then you can always switch over at a later date.

HTH

-Stanley