I'm thinking of getting Filemaker Pro 8 to replace Access and want to run 3 simultaneous instances over a network. Will purchasing one version allow me to run it on three local machines?

Thanks!

No. You will need to purchase 3 licenses and use one to host your solution.

~Genx

Filemaker Pro provides hosting for up to 5 users concurrently at any one time, each user must have a license. Anything above that and you will also need filemaker server.

~Genx

Great - thanks very much!

How does it serve? Can it be accessed as a document on a standard web hosting account in a folder somewhere, or does it need to be set up and run on its own server?

Oh right i forgot, some more information you might find useful. Filemaker also supports hosting to the web using IWP (Instant Web Publishing). This is supported for up to i think five users and only the one FM pro license is required. All users would access through web browser and one could be using the copy of filemaker while it is hosting.

Also it "serves" using a serving engine i suppose lol. But no, you do not need a dedicated host machine for a small environment like this. If you open the file and its properties are set to allow sharing over the local network (im not sure but i think WAN is supported with fm pro, i know its supported in server but..), the copy of filemaker that opens it becomes the host, and all other computers connect to that "remote" file - all done through filemaker.

~Genx

Thanks very much for the great help!

I'm no expert on IWP, but there are lots of things that won't work over the web which someone else should be alble to comment on.

Steve

Yes, be cautious about developing your solution if you'll be using IWP. Some things just won't work that work in a normal filemaker solution. To see the things that won't work just select the "indicate web compatibility" checkbox in script maker, this is likely where any problems will originate.

~Genx