I have a database setup for tracking a side business and just got someone to help but I need to give them some kind of access besides sneakernet. I have a web hosting site and was wondering could I put the fp7 file up there and how to allow each of us access. I would prefer to run IWP but the hosting site only does mySQL and my ISP want almost $100 per month for a static IP account.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks.

Kevin

Hi, k! I don't think the web hosting site thing will work out. You can FTP up/down as needed, but I don't think you want that. In order to have FM db's accessible to more than 1 person, someone or some computer has to play the part of "host". Once a computer with a publicly accessible IP address opens a db with sharing on, other users with compatible version of FM can access it via OPEN REMOTE or OPEN > HOSTS and typing in the IP address.

If you leave your computer on with the db open and shared, the remote user can access it if the IP address is known. Hosting with a dynamic IP becomes a hassle, but you could do "poor man's" hosting by automating some kind of IP address notification system that sends your IP address to the remote computer via e-mail or something, or you can use a service that tracks your dynamic IP such that if you register a domain name, the service will forward all traffic to that domain to whatever your IP address happens to be at the time.

I'd probably just do the e-mail thing and leave the computer on. A cheap 350MHz CRT iMac should do it nicely if you don't want to commit your main system. If you use a router, though, you'd have to configure the router to forward FM traffic (over port 5003) to the subnet IP your computer would be using since the router would be using the "public" dynamic IP that the ISP is providing you.

Of course, this is the IWP forum, so I suppose you can use IWP instead of direct FM access. You'd follow the same kinda thing, though, i.e. have to leave your computer on, etc.

Good luck!

--ST

Kevin:

Another option is to use a dedicated FileMaker hosting service - it can be as little as $20/month. You can get both IWP and regular FileMaker Network access on most. Here are a few of them:

http://www.filemaker7hosting.com/

http://www.forest.net/services/shared/filemaker.php

http://www.pointinspace.com/pointinspacesite/hostingplans/default.html

And FMI has a list of FileMaker ISPs on its site:

http://www.filemaker.com/support/isp.html

-Stanley

Just wanted to say that all of our FileMaker 7/8 accounts include IWP, FileMaker Network Sharing, XML/XSLT Custom Web Publishing, Lasso and FX.php:

http://www.pointinspace.com/

- John