FM4.1 Hangs on Host Listing

[Ed M.]

Filemaker setup is Server 3 on MacOS 9.1/ASIP6.x, Client 4.1 running on MacOS 9.2.2.

Clients are configured to access the server via TCP/IP. When they go to file -> open -> hosts, they get the squigly arrow (network busy) for up to 10+ minutes before the hosts listing actually appears.

Any ideas on what could be causing this?

This started happening after a demo of FMP 5.5 was installed on one machine on the network (since been unisntalled), although I suspect the timing was coincidental.

[Steve T.]

Hi, Ed! Hmm... I think I had a similar problem years ago and now I can't remember how to fix it. It's like it's searching/waiting using the wrong protocol or something and then times out before switching to the appropriate desired one. Since you're all old mac, try switching to AppleTalk as the default protocol and see if there's improvement. If it were just 1 client, I'd suggest trashing the preference file but if it's all of them, I doubt that will help... Oh, I suppose you could trash the server's preference file (while not serving) and see if that does anything after you relaunch.

And not that it means much, but I have also seen this behavior before on systems where FM was not even a factor. In fact, it might have been when we were using ASIP 6.2 but that, too, is probably just coincidence... just around the same era I'd guess.

--ST

[Fitch]

Make sure FM Server is the front-most application on the server Mac.

On the clients, I recommend you create a launcher file that is set to look for a specific IP. That way, the user never has to see the Hosts button, and it should be very fast.