I've been using FM for over 10 years. I'm pretty familiar with many of its functions, but I know nearly nothing about sharing. I want to set up a way to share a database, hosted on my computer, with multiple users (about 5 users) who are on DIFFERENT local networks in different countries. I know FM v.11 can share on the same local network. Can I expand privileges across different users on different networks by setting up sharing in OSX 10.6.7? I could probably figure this out via trial and error, but I want to set it up right. I also looked into FM Server, but it doesn't explicitly say it can share across different networks. Thanks for any information you can provide.

I think you're confusing "sharing" and "discovering". FM uses bonjour to discover and show available hosts in the "open remote" dialog. That discovery works only on the same network as where the client is. But FM can certainly share across different networks. Port 5003 has to be opened and forwarded to the FM host on the router/gateway that sits on the edige of the network where the FM host is.

Keep in mind that sharing without FileMaker Server has some serious limitations. The lack of live backups by itself is why I would never consider it.

I've been using FM for over 10 years. I'm pretty familiar with many of its functions, but I know nearly nothing about sharing. I want to set up a way to share a database, hosted on my computer, with multiple users (about 5 users) who are on DIFFERENT local networks in different countries. I know FM v.11 can share on the same local network. Can I expand privileges across different users on different networks by setting up sharing in OSX 10.6.7? I could probably figure this out via trial and error, but I want to set it up right. I also looked into FM Server, but it doesn't explicitly say it can share across different networks. Thanks for any information you can provide.

Get and use FileMaker Server. It is explicitly designed to do what you are seeking here. You might also want to read Wim Decorte's Tech Brief on FileMaker Server as well as to view his excellent videos found on VTC here.

Steven

You can "rent" space on a FMS Hosting Site, such as Point In Space. Be aware that response time could be unacceptable across a WAN and design really needs to pay attention to how much data is transferred to the user. For example, a list view of unstored calcs would be almost unusable across a WAN.