Wanna login from the road.

How do I set my Ambit cable modem to allow me to login with my iMac?

What changes must I make to the host's (G5) sharing settings?

Must the FM files be in the Web folder, or the Public or Shared folder of my User?

are you talking about web publishing or just access with FM Pro?

Your modem is just a modem, can't change the settings on that one. If you have a firewall/router you need to open port 5003 (for normal access with FM Pro) and forward it to the IP address of your FM host.

The FM host must have the FM files open. The OS firewall on that machine must be off or allow access to port 5003

In the remote FMPro, you do "open remote" and use the public IP address of the remote location.

Hi, m! Welcome to FMFORUMS! Also, your external IP address will probably change each time you reboot your host/server or reinitiate your internet connection so if you want a quick check to see what IP number you're server will appear to be on (actually it's the router's IP), run a web browser on it and go to http://www.whatismyip.com or a site similar and see what IP address your router has. If you configure it as Wim described, you'll just have to check the IP before you leave on your trip.

Your computer's IP address may be set up for a local/internal IP which the outside world (the road) cannot access directly without help from the router (re-configure for port forwarding as WD mentioned). Don't try to access it's IP directly unless you're sure it's accessible from the internet. Something like 192.168.x.x are used by millions of users on their own private networks and typically cannot be accessed except by other 192.168.x.x users on the same network.

The location of your files don't matter as long as they are open in FM and set to be shared. In fact, FM specifically recommends NOT storing them in your Web folder. You can share your db's via direct FM to FM connections as we described, or you can share them via Web Publishing (Instant or Custom). You can also turn on your server's file sharing capability and connect that way... just try to resist double-clicking the db directly from the Finder. It's generally considered risky and can lead to db corruption, but you can copy your db back and forth and use it locally without problems.

Good luck!

--ST

P.S. There should be lots of posts about this already if you'd like more details.

(Ed: added more and fixed reference to router IP <> server IP --ST)

yes, the latter: access with FMPro.

It is a firewall/router.

Thanks much

okay

I think I have it set properly

so, do I got to FMPro on my laptop, try "open remote", and specify the host 65.xxx.xxx.xx:5003? (or ":519"

Hi, m! If your router is configured to forward port 5003 to your selected FM host server, you would just connect via OPEN REMOTE or OPEN... HOSTS... and connect to your router IP 65.x.x.x without specificying a port number. Your router will detect the traffic is on :5003 and pass it along to your host server. If you have Instant Web Publishing on and are trying to connect via a web browser (like Safari), then you would connect to http://65.x.x.x:591 if you have configured your router to forward :591 traffic and you have configured FM to use :591 for web publishing. The default is to use port :80, however, which does not need to be typed such that http://65.x.x.x and http://65.x.x.x:80 are the same thing, i.e. http://www.fmforums.com and http://www.fmforums.com:80 should lead you to the same exact place. :80 is the implied default port for web publishing.

--ST

I think I have configured the modem/router to forward 5003 to my host machine

port range forwarding is set start 5003 and end 5003 to my 192.168.0.xx

on my G5 sharing control panel, firewall is off for now (I coud set Filemaker to 5003 and enable that with fire wall on?)

when I do "open remote", specify host, 24.xxx.xx.xxx

I get nada

Hmm... as long as 24.x.x.x is the IP to your router, I would think that would work. Maybe double-check to make sure that your FM databases are open on the host and that they are set to be shared. You may also need to make sure both the host and client are using the same network protocol, e.g. TCP/IP. That should be all there is to it. To see if sharing is working, you can connect to the host from a client on the same network [192.168.x.y] and then go to FILE > OPEN and click on the HOSTS button. This will let you BROWSE for the database from the local network. If you can see it and connect to it from there, then you can isolate the problem to router configuration, ISP port blocking, or other reasons.

--ST