OSX Panther Server

[Jay11]

Hi all,

I have encountered a funny little problem. I will first give you some background. I am currently in the process of moving our filemaker databases over from OS9 to OSX. Running filemaker pro 4.1 in classic mode on OSX panther works well sharing with other OS9 and OSX clients. I was even able to get it to share properly with windows machines. All sharing was happening through tcp/ip. The only thing wrong was that I was limited to 10 connections by regular OSX Panther. So I moved to OSX Panther Server. Now I have unlimited connections but I can no longer share with the windows computers. I need to be able to share with the windows computers but something goes wrong with the upgrade to Server edition.

any ideas?

Jay

[Steve T.]

Hi, Jay! I believe OS X Server comes in both Unlimited and 10-user licenses but the limitation should only apply to Apple file sharing / connections and not internet services or the serving of other software products so FileMaker should not have been affected unless users are connecting through file sharing and double-clicking the database through a mounted network volume. If this is the case, be warned that this is known for causing data corruption is not the recommend way to multi-use a db. The appropriate way is to have your server have FM running with the db open (and shared) and other users connect by running FM, selecting OPEN, and clicking on HOSTS to access the db via FM. No system file sharing is needed and should actually be avoided for FM sharing (although you can have file sharing on and running, don't let users double-click to enter a db... only the host server should do that). This should work for both Mac and Windows.

Server has a number of enhancements over X client, including Samba and other network/sharing tools, but at its core is the same as client, just with more. You could probably tweak it to get it working like client but it's probably not worth it since I think you should implement the OPEN > HOSTS model anyway. IMO, Server is definitely worth having, though. It includes Apache, PHP, Postfix, Mailman, and (I think) MySQL installed by default, has Open Directory, and a suite of integrated admin tools that give you greater control over your server configuration and users/groups.

--ST