Alternativess to Citrix Xen App to stream File Maker to Mac Users over the WAN? FM to FMS over the WAN is making users more and more upset.

[Forrest_Howell]

Is anyone else using anything other than Citrix Xen App to stream FM Client to Mac users so communication between FM client and FMS is on the same LAN for remote users?

We're trying to get 2X Streamed App (http://www.2x.com/) to work to avoid the huge fees with Citrix Xen App. (~$300/ user to set-up & Annual Maint.), but don't have the answer yet as our issue keeps getting escalated up their support chains. It works great until you try to Print or Print Set-up... freezes.

Windows Remote App 2008 R2 works great for PC users so all data transfer between client and server is in the same LAN, except that users seem to loose connectivity to their local drives and printers sometimes that requires the account to be rebuilt in Terminal Services.

However, the newer Mac OS's running FM Client connecting direct to FMS over the WAN for any enterprise grade application is a joke and makes users mad at the latency and unusable for many.

We can provide windows server desktops to the Mac clients with FM installed, but we do not want to support desktops and only want to stream the FM Apps.

Suggestions??? Maybe we're just once again hitting a wall with FM and need to rebuild everything as a true web app designed for the WAN.... I SO WISH FM would have addressed the latency and time out issue over all the other silly upgrades released in 12!!!

[Wim Decorte]

I SO WISH FM would have addressed the latency and time out issue over all the other silly upgrades released in 12!!!

That's an unrealistic wish. The nature of a terminal services setup like Citrix will always be faster than a direct FMP to FMS connection. A direct connection like this needs to send both screen updates AND data across the wires in addition to parts of the schema to be executed locally, whereas a remote desktop / remote desktop setup only needs to send limited screen updates.

Latency is a measure of distance. No matter how efficient an application is designed it can not beat the laws of nature and the vagueries of WAN connections.

The good news is that the focus on FM Go that we're seeing is forcing the FMI engineers to pay more attention than ever on latency issues. But don't ever expect a WAN deployment to be remotely close to a LAN connection.