FM6 network fights internet

[Howe9999]

We have small network of G3's and one IBM all using FM6 with one acting as host for all files. It works great, until I set the host computer to hook up to internet then no-one can connect to the host with filemaker anymore. What can I be doing wrong or how do I use internet and fm on same computer? All computers are hooked up with ethernet cat 5 cables to a central hub which also attaches to internet.

clay

[Unable]

See Gary's answer below in the thread "FM 5.5 Web Server Connector Confusion ".

[Lee Smith]

Hi Unable,

It is better to use the URL (available in the "Reply" menu) than to use a reference to the position it may occupy on a list. As you can see, your reference has move down on the list, and if there were another reply, it would be at the top.

Here is the URL

Lee

[Garry Claridge]

Also, the IP address of the "host" computer may have changed, hence the other computers cannot see it. The sub-net mask (255.255.255.0) may now be irrelevant.

Can the "host" computer be seen for other purposes such as File Sharing?

Good Luck.

Garry

[Steve T.]

Hi, Clay!

I'm not sure what "set the host computer to hook up to internet" exactly means but your problem probably has to do with IP addresses as Garry suspects. How do your computers get their IP addresses? If your hub is a router and you are configured for DHCP (dynamic IP addressing), your router hands out IP addresses which may be internal to your network and only accessible internally. If you move the server outside that local network and give it a different IP address, your network computers can still access it by connect to the server's IP address but not by browsing for it as before... you cannot browse the entire internet -- only your own local subnet.

You can have exactly what you want if you use real IP addresses on your network instead of local IP's (e.g. 192.168.x.x) but you probably don't have those. If you leave the server on the internal network, you can probably congifure the router/hub to redirect web traffic (port 80) to the server if you have configuration ability and access privileges for the router, but not all routers can do port forwarding.

You may have to tell us more nitty-gritty details for us to make better recommendations, though.

--ST

[Howe9999]

My remote computers are set up with DHCP id # 192.168.0.X they all can hook up to the internet and also remote FM with the host. The host computer if it has the same configuration can also use the internet but remote computers can then no longer use remote FM files. If I change host computer to DHCP with manual IP address (It still shows the exact same address 192.168.0.4) then FM works but the host computer will then no longer hook up to the internet. With either setup my remote computer can see the host computer and even open a FM file acting as the host, but if the real host computer has file XYZ open none of the other comps can hook up with remote file. We need to all be using the same files together so the remote hookup is a must.

Thanks Clay

[Garry Claridge]

I suggest that you acquire a Gateway/Router for your Internet access. Then all of the computers on the Local Area Network can keep their IP address (192.168.0.x) and also access the Internet.

All the best.

Garry

[Howe9999]

All of the remote computers have the IP address of 192.168.0.X They work fine. The host computer also uses 192.168.0.4 and that never changes. even when I use DHCP with manual IP address it still uses the same IP address as when I set it on just DHCP by itself. Will buying a new router still make a difference?

[Steve T.]

Hi, Howe!

Your router/hub probably has a regular IP address like 68.102.x.x or something, hopefully it is static and does not change. Computers/devices connected to it get 192.168.0.x handed to them by the router. I think what you want to do is...

(1) configure the router to use 68.102.x.x (or whatever) for its communication to the internet

(2) configure the router to use 192.168.0.1 as the local gateway IP address

(3) configure the server to use 192.168.0.2 as a static IP w/192.168.0.1 as its gateway

(4) configure the router to distribute 192.168.0.4 thru 192.168.0.10 for DHCP to other terminals

(5) configure other terminals for DHCP

This should allow all your comptuers to both have internet and connect to the FM server. If you wanted to access the FM server from outside the network (i.e. remotely thru the internet), this is more complex and would require your router to be able to forward port traffic to your server's internal/local IP address of 192.168.0.2. The router would have to forward :80 traffic if web serving and forward the port FileMaker uses (which I don't recall at the moment) for FileMaker to FileMaker access. Not all routers can do port forwarding.

I hope this helps some. Using internal/local IP addresses tends to complicate things.

--ST