Problem opening shared database with FMP9

[BlackHole]

Hello!

I'm new to the board and have read various posts surrounding issues similar to mine, but have not had any luck resolving my problem so here goes...

I'll start with some basic info...

My setup;

Primary workstation: Mac running OS 10.4.11 and have both FMP9 and FMP10 Adv installed and functioning.

Laptop: Mac running 10.5.6 and have both FMP9 and FMP10 Adv installed and functioning.

My environment;

I am on an office network. The networks for our LA and NYC offices are interconnected, but am not sure exactly how. Though I can tell you if I want to print, I can select which printer and can actually select printers in our NYC offices from my machine here in LA. I have accidentally printed documents from my machine here in LA on printers in NYC so I know this works. Also, we have shared network drives to store files on. Our people in NYC can access it as well as myself here in LA (I access via Finder/Go/Connect to Server using a smb address).

What I'm trying to do:

Host my database from my machine here in LA and share it with another user located in NYC that is on the same network. The data is confidential and needs to be restricted to local sharing to avoid any security issues. I am not permitted to use the web publishing features etc.

Previously, I had the following solution working just fine:

I was hosting my database on my primary workstation using FMP10 Adv here in LA. The user in NYC was using FMP10 Adv as well to login. No issues, everything worked beautifully.

I have a new person as my user and now I have an issue:

I am still hosting my database on my primary workstation using FMP10 Adv here in LA. The user in NYC has changed, and this person only has FMP9 (doesnt own FMP10 Adv). When they use the "Open Remote" dialogue box, I do not appear under the "Hosts" column in the Local Hosts section. I thought that there was possibly some sort of backwards compatibility issue by hosting on FMP10 Adv and trying to Open Remote with FMP9. So to test I opened my old FMP9 on my primary workstation and tried hosting through that. The user in NYC still cannot see me in hosts under "Open Remote".

I decided to test connecting using my laptop and my primary workstation to try to rule out user error in NYC and this is what I did....

I connected my laptop via ethernet to my office network and tried different combinations of application versions on my laptop and workstation to connect them to each other.

Test 1;

Primary Workstation: Host using FMP10 Adv

Laptop: Attempt to Open Remote using FMP10 Adv

Result: Connection works fine, I appear under host and file appears under available. Am able to access and use accordingly.

Test 2;

Primary Workstation: Host using FMP10 Adv

Laptop: Attempt to Open Remote using FMP9

Result: After opening "Open Remote" dialogue box on laptop, my primary workstation appears under Host list, but the file does not appear under "available files".

Test 3;

Primary Workstation: Host using FMP9

Laptop: Attempt to Open Remote using FMP9

Result: After opening "Open Remote" dialogue box on my laptop, my primary workstation appears under Host list, but the file does not appear under "available files".

Test 4;

Primary Workstation: Host using FMP9

Laptop: Attempt to Open Remote using FMP10 Adv

Result: Connection works fine, I appear under host and file appears under available. Am able to access and use accordingly.

So apparently there is some sort of issue I'm having where FMP9 is refusing to open my database remotely, no matter if I'm hosting using FMP9 or FMP10 Adv. I can connect when hosting using either FMP9 or FMP10 Adv successfully when using FMP10 Adv to login, but cannot login using FMP9 to connect to host. The simple fix would be to update my user in NYC to FMP10 Adv, however that is unfortunately not an option.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

[Peter (duksis3)]

Hi,

I'm not very sure - I haven't any problems in similar cases with FMP 9 or 10 (with FMP8-yes) - but I suppose that you need to write network address and filename in Favorite Host, not Local Host. See Help.

I don't think that FileMaker version is important.

[BlackHole]

I tried adding my ip/filename to favorites and it will not open the file.

I added the address in the following format,

fmnet:/IP/FILENAME.fp7

After clicking open, I get the following response,

"FILENAME" could not be opened. Either the host is not available or the file is not available on that host.

It's strange because I am able to connect just fine when I use FMP10Adv as my client app and use either FMP9 or FMP10Adv as host app. However, I am unable to connect using FMP9 as client app and using either FMP9 or FMP10Adv as my host app. Again, my real client (user) only has FMP9 so I really need to figure out how to get him connected!!!

Thanks for trying... :cofeebrake:

[mr_vodka]

Just add the IP alone and see what happens.

fmnet:/YourIP/

[BlackHole]

Where can I try that?

When in the Open Remote dialogue box, the "Open" button will not activate for use until you enter a network file path consisting of fmnet:/IP/file

When only fmnet:/IP/ is in the network file path field the "Open" button is not available.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks again!

[Peter (duksis3)]

Open Remote, choose Favorite hosts, click Add and write in IP address etc.

I don't knew why but I cannot add zipped screenshoots here for illustration

[BlackHole]

Peter

This is the same thing you recommended I try earlier, correct?

I already tried it and didn't have any luck.

[Peter (duksis3)]

Hmmm...I read again your first message.

Probably you need to restart Filemaker before trying different variants. Or restart computer - I don't knew what is stored for "fmnet". But in reality - no idea. Sorry.

[BlackHole]

No problem.

Thanks anyways Peter!

[oddamerican]

Hi, were you able to solve your problem with FM 9 not seeing the shared file? I am having the same problem at the moment.

Thanks

[dansmith65]

I had a similar issue today. Since it doesn't seem like there was any resolution to this thread, I came here to post what worked for me...

Copy 'root.pem' and 'server.pem' files from a computer that IS able to connect, to the one that ISN'T able to connect.

(these can be found in the install directory of the version of FileMaker in question)

Another possible fix that I have heard about, but did not have to use to get my setup working:

Disable ipv6 on the host computer.