HELP! please. Remote access to FMS

[Twd70]

Hi, Im getting all muddled.

Ive got what seems to be quite a complex database, using some advanced functionality, which doesnt work properly on IWP.

I was going to suggest using local clients to remotly access the data (there are 3 sites, 1 would access a local server) BUT some1 told me that doing this is slower than using IWP (apparently thats why IWP exists?).

has any1 done this? can anyone validate this either way?

I could really use any help, as otherwise i might have to look at some way of syncing 3 separate files! (eek/ cry)

thanks in advance!

[Reed]

There are some things that are particularly slow about using FMP clients over a WAN. I do it all the time from home, but running things like complicated subsummary reports (or anything else that moves a lot of data over the network) can be problematic.

Other options are to use VNC. You can enable VNC in the sharing preferences of OS X and use something like Apple Remote Desktop or free options like Chicken of the VNC to access the remote desktop which is connected to FMS on a fast LAN.

Solutions like this don't scale well to large numbers of users, so then things like Citrix or terminal services could be employed, but they can be more complicated and expensive to set up. Also, I have no experience with those except on the client end.

One other thing is that you have to make sure that your firewall will allow remote FMP connections on port 5003, otherwise you'll have to use a VPN or an SSH tunnel.