preliminary questions about server 7 advanced

[po0t]

Hey all

Just had some questions about Server 7 Advanced.. since there's no trial for it I can't just find out for myself. Just so you all know, I'm no database/computer expert, i'm just the one in charge of the computer related duties.

Lemme just outline the setup we have right now..

We have 2 offices.. one has our server(5.5) with 4 clients(v6), the other has 4 clients, and 1 computer using a remote desktop kind of program to use the client that's on the server. we have a VPN set up between the 2 offices. We have a few other people who work outside our offices who use information from our database, and a 3rd office will be opening up which will need access.

The performance of Filemaker in our 2nd office has gotten quite slow lately; with the exception of the computer using the remote access..

My boss has tasked me with checking out Server 7 Advanced, to see if we can make use of the web interface instead of having to use client software and VPNs.

I was wondering; if i were to install FM Pro 7 on the server, and shared our database files with the web publishing feature, could i use that to gauge the performance of the web interface as compared to if i were using FMS7A? I did a test like this on a different computer, of lesser computing power.. the results weren't that great. within the same office, it took a few seconds to load each page.. and from our other office, we couldn't even get 1 page to fully load, and it kept getting disconnected. Now.. that wasn't the best test scenario, but I was just wondering if the web publishing performance of FMP 7 could be used to compare to FMS7A's web publishing.

Is the web interface a viable option as a replacement to using the client software? Does anyone have any suggestions? Our db could probably use some cleaning/optimization..

Sorry to write so much to ask some simple questions.

po0t

[Vaughan]

The normal version of FMP 7 can host 5 simultaneous IWP users, so you can kinda use it as a FMSA 7 demo version.

"Is the web interface a viable option as a replacement to using the client software?"

Well, you'll have to try it and see. Really. I am *extremely* impressed with what it can do: it simulates the FMP client interface inside a web browser. However as with all simulations there are trade-offs. So try it and see.

[po0t]

thanks for the reply..

i suppose a redesign of our db will be in order.. if we're gonna be using filemaker through a browser.. our main layout is pretty busy. don't think i can just throw our current layouts into the web interface and expect it to be blazing fast.. it's already kinda slow over the vpn.

edit: yea.. 12 bucks an hour to do just that...