Installation and TCP/IP

[Will]

Bob:

Let me make sure I understand.

The first time you open Filemaker you have to go in and choose TCP/IP even though you chose TCP/IP during the setup, right?

If you then log off and then log back in do you again have to reset it to TCP/IP? If so, what user account are you logging in with? If you have not tried so already, log in as local NT Administrator, set FM to TCP/IP, then log off and back in as Administrator and see if the TCP/IP setting is retained.

[Bob Ratcliffe]

Hi Folks,

At my school we run NT4/workstation as the OS. I have FM Server 5 sitting on the network, with FM 5.5 installed on each of the PC's. When I installed on to the PC's, I opted for TCP/IP as being the protocol to us..fine. When I open FM on a PC, you can see that it says TCP/IP installed. Now, when I try to open one of the files on the server by clicking on hosts, it does not know how to communicate with the network!! I have to cancel, go to Edit and preferences, and then choose TCP/IP, even though it had been chosen on the installation. I exit FM, go in again and its fine.

This is a big problem for me, as I have set up a system on the FM Server which needs to allow my teaching colleagues to access from other terminals...I KNOW THEY WILL HAVE PROBLEMS when they have to cancel, choose TCP/IP etc. it also means they will always have the problem if they choose a different PC on the network.

Any suggestions?

Bob

[Bob Ratcliffe]

Will,

I tried this before, but I've just done it again to be sure....yep, I went in as the administrator and TCP/IP is set up fine. However, if I then went in as another member of staff who has not used FM on thos PC before, then FM does not know how to talk to the network/FM server...I have to cancel, set TCP from the edit and preferences, etc. and then I'm okay. Is it something to do with the staff profile for the network?

Bob

[Steven H. Blackwell]

This issue probably has to do with where the preferences are stored and who can access them. When you installed FMP 5.5, did you select "all users" or "just this user"?

Also, be sure to be using the latest vrev, FMP 5.5v2.

HTH

Old Advance Man

[Will]

Bob:

Here's one solution, although maybe not the simplest because you may have to visit each PC once to set this up if users are logging onto NT with a local user account.

The setting that controls the FM network protocol preference can be found by opening regedit and going to

[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareFileMakerFileMaker Pro5.0Preferences] (NOTE: Since I am using FM 5 my path is FileMakerPro5.0 but yours should be the same except for 5.5)

There you will find the following -

"Network Protocol"=

If you have already set the protocol to TCP/IP within FileMaker you will see -

"Network Protocol"="FMTCP32.NET"

If no protocol is set you will see -

"Network Protocol"=""

You can set all users to use TCP/IP in FM automatically when they log on to NT by putting a batch file in the "all users" startup folder that writes the "Network Protocol"="FMTCP32.NET" setting into the registry. Hopefully this helps.

Will

PS. What would be really cool is if someone out there knows how to add the logged on NT user's name automatically to the "User name:" box in application preferences.

[DykstrL]

Will,

We are doing this now. As part of our NT logon script, the FileMaker User's Name is changed to the current logged on user.

It also checks the network protocol and sets it to TCP/IP if is set to anything else.

If you want, I can send you a copy of the logon.

[ April 16, 2002, 02:39 PM: Message edited by: dykstrl ]

[Bob Ratcliffe]

Will,

This is just to say thanks very much! We did what you suggested and it works fine. I'm very grateful!!!

Bob