At present we have a system where we have a total of two usernames and passwords for each database. One is for admin the other is for all other users.

Between the different databases there are probably four different sets of password possibilities.

Everytime someone logs into a database they get asked for a password (or sometimes more than one).

I suspect that this system could be a lot more secure and a lot less annoying as well.

What is the best way for me to set up separate user accounts for each user so that:

a) someone logs in once and then doesn't need to again

b ) only sees databases that they specifically have access to

c) maintains security for the database files themselves in case someone decided to walk off with our server/one of our backup servers

Our server runs on Windows xp and our server and client versions are version 9. Our clients are a mix between in office and out of office workers.

We have about 10 databases running so setting up individual authentication on them would be slightly painful so some way of centralising the privileges while keeping it secure would be wonderful.

First of all: if you set up each file so that it has an account/password that matches the other files, users will not get asked to log in to each file.

Second: you posted this in "External Server Authentication." I suggest you read up on what that means (it's a way to centrally manage your accounts).

That answers a and c (except if you are really worried about c, you do have the option to remove admin access from the files altogether, using FileMaker Advanced).

As for b, that's a checkbox in the server admin tool.