I am currently running peer to peer with 5 computers on a poorly designed database (I am not a programmer) - running FMPRO 6.0. Basically, there are 4000 fields in mostly a flat database. The primary use of relational db is to move scans out to keep below the 2 GB limit. Converting to 7.0 seems kind of like getting a vasectomy (a little too permanent for me).

What advantages would I gain by installing FMPRO Server 5.5?

FMS will not solve any of the problems you mention above. FMS offers optimised multi-user access and automated backups.

You'll have to convert the solution to FMP 7 (or 8 or 9) sometime, sooner is better than later. It sounds like a full re-design is required.

I don't really see you gaining anything moving a 4000 field flat file to server. You're still going to have the same 2GB file size limit.

Going to 7 might not be a bad idea... it would give you a chance to redesign your database properly, by splitting fields up into the appropriate tables. (Look up data normalization)

If you give some idea of the data you're trying to track, and what you want to do with it, maybe I (or someone else smarter than me) can help you to set it up.

Based on your other posts, it seems like you're storing pdf files directly in the DB file. On option to stop the file size from getting too big is to just store a reference to the file, and store the actual pdf files in a folder outside of the DB.

Filemaker 7 definitely offers advantages in the use of container fields. In addition to allowing 8 TB files, each container field can hold something like 2GB of data.

When I took my 5 file FM 5.5 database to v7, it had some glitches... but more than that, I was using 5 files (tables) in a system that should have had 10, just to keep the number of open files down in my FM 5.5 peer to peer setup.

I ended up rebuilding my system from scratch as a single file with 10 tables, 4 custom functions, and only 20 scripts (using script parameters can really cut down the number of scripts you need)

BTW, I'm not a programmer either :

Dana