host not found (on new pc)

[SuburbanVideo]

We just got a new pc in the office, and were using filemaker pro 3. I wanted to set up the new pc as the server because its a lot faster (800mhz duron) than the previous (120mhz pentium). Unfortunately we could not locate the filemaker pro 3 install cd. I tried just copying the files and running it, and it seemed to open the files as multi-user and work fine, until i tried connecting a client computer to it, it would not find a host for the files on the network.

So i thought it must be because the program was copied and not installed, maybe it puts stuff in the system folder that i missed. We went out and got FMP 5 and installed it on all the computers (there's only 4 of them) I converted the files and tried connecting to it with the same results, no hosts detected.

I spoke at length with the guy who originally created the database for us, and he is using 5 now also. he had me set local data access companion on for the 6 files being shared, but that didn't work either. also closing and reopening filemaker didn't help (he said that might help.) Let me just mention that we are using IPX/SPX as the network protocol. All computers do see each other through Network Neighborhood, and i know ipx/spx works because we can play games of quake over the network

anways, i went to the official website and couldn't find anything, and i searched the forums (although maybe i'm just not looking for the right name of the problem.) If there's anything you all could think of please post it, we're getting more desperate by the day.

Thanks in advance,

Dave

[Kurt Knippel]

quote:

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Originally posted by SuburbanVideo:

If there's anything you all could think of please post it, we're getting more desperate by the day.

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Call Filemaker, Inc and order a new CD. Easy as pie!

[SuburbanVideo]

But we just got the filemaker pro 5 cd, so shouldn't that work? or are you saying the cd might somehow have bad files on it?

i've been working on this most of today and i started thinking maybe there's some incompatibility with the network cards. like i mentioned, they work great transferring files in windows and play games just fine, only filemaker pro 5 is having a problem. So what i did was got the other new computer which has the exact same hardware, and tried using that as a client, but even that didn't see the filemaker pro host. in terms of windows network protocols i've got tcp/ip, ipx/spx and netbios installed, with ipx/spx set to be used as the default network protocol. hope that info is somehow helpful. and if its not, any of you guys in the rockville, maryland area wanna make a quick buck and come fix it?

[Kurt Knippel]

quote:

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Originally posted by SuburbanVideo:

But we just got the filemaker pro 5 cd, so shouldn't that work? or are you saying the cd might somehow have bad files on it?

i've been working on this most of today and i started thinking maybe there's some incompatibility with the network cards. like i mentioned, they work great transferring files in windows and play games just fine, only filemaker pro 5 is having a problem. So what i did was got the other new computer which has the exact same hardware, and tried using that as a client, but even that didn't see the filemaker pro host. in terms of windows network protocols i've got tcp/ip, ipx/spx and netbios installed, with ipx/spx set to be used as the default network protocol. hope that info is somehow helpful. and if its not, any of you guys in the rockville, maryland area wanna make a quick buck and come fix it?

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Sorry about the CD bit, I missed the part where you got thr 5.0 CD.

At this time FMP only supports TCP/IP, so that might be your problem. If you can switch you systems over to TCP/IP as the network protocol you should be fine. Try doing this to one system and see if that solves the problem.

Make sure you have updated to the latest revision of FMP which is 5.0v2 or 5.5. Then call Filemaker Tech support if you still have problems, they will likely have the solution.

[Kurt Knippel]

Gary Hopps pointed out to me that the latest version of FMP is actually 5.0v3, and not 5.0v2 as I had inadvertantly typed.

So check that you are running the latest revision, whatever specific number it might be.

[PotzUK]

quote:

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Originally posted by CaptKurt:

At this time FMP only supports TCP/IP, so that might be your problem.

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Although I've never used it, IPX does appear in the drop down list on my PC in the FM Prefs...

[SuburbanVideo]

Thanks for your replies, and i don't know why this is the case but here's how we solved the problem. The two new computers did end up seeing each other over the network, but not the old ones. the only thing i could think of was that the old computers' network cards were ISA, while the new ones had them built into the motherboards. i got newer PCI network cards for the two older computers and now they all see the FMP server.

But now we've got another dilemna, the two new computers are exactly the same in terms of hardware and operating system, but the one that isn't the server randomly crashes when you go to our calendar in file maker pro. sometimes it just locks up the computer, and sometimes it actually resets the computers' power the second you click on "Calendar" a pretty strange error, but i haven't really had time to futz with it yet.

[BruceJ]

I've had FMP cause Windoze 95,98 and NT to give fatal errors randomly at times. Being the guy pushing FMP around the office, I was shy about it and didn't want to create a scenes about how my favorite application is crashing the computers.

I ended up re-imaging the machines and it solves the problem everytime. I never knew just exactly what was causing it, only what solved it. If it's a new machine, you might want to try the restoring the operating system and starting over. For me, uninstalling and reinstalling FMP didn't do any good.

[Kurt Knippel]

While this will do little to solve your problem, I have found that the newer the machine, the more crap is already installed, and the more problems you have.

I have lately begun stripping any new machines I get down to a bare operating system and loading software from there. Seems to cause me less problems in the long run.