FM 8.5A Re install

[The Headache]

Hi All

I was having sporadic problems with FM 8.5 on windows XP with 4 stations networked, after using it successfully for 4 years, which may or may not have been FM's fault. 
So I tried reinstalling FM on the main workstation (server) which worked fine, however none of the clients can connect due to "Number of users exceed limit". The number of users didn't change and I can see the server in the connect remote dialog box. It's as if on the UNinstall ( I used the windows REMOVE PROGRAMS) it didn't remove the users (?) and now it thinks there is 8 (?)

 

Any clues? Or is the God's way of saying upgrade? 
Thanks for any help!

[Wim Decorte]

When you reinstalled did you use one of the license keys that is in use by any of the other 4 machines?

[The Headache]

Thanks for the reply.
Yes. They all always used the same key. FM allows up to 5 users with one license.

[Wim Decorte]

Only when you have a volume license key... are you sure you have one of those.  (Don't confuse this with FM's peer-to-peer sharing capability).

[The Headache]

Well not sure what I have but it worked fine for years before the re-install.

The way it worked was that I had FM and the files on one computer and the others accessed those files remotely.

I re-installed the software where the files reside. 

 

This is the situation I have: (From the help file) FileMaker Pro Network Sharing supports the sharing of files with up to 5 concurrent users. To support more users and other web publishing technologies such as XML, use FileMaker Server Advanced.

 

In case I confused the issue using the term "server" instead of "host", I am not using FM Server software.

 

Does that help you help me? 

[Wim Decorte]

Not really.  The deployment you describe is understood:  that is called FM peer-to-peer sharing since there is no FM Server involved.  That does not mean that you can install FM 5 times.  You need a separate license for each installed copy of FM.  Unless you have purchased a volume license from FMI.  In that case you will get one license key that you can use as many times as you have paid for.

 

 

So that is the first thing to rule out before moving on to other troubleshooting.

[The Headache]

Hmmm...

So it will work on 5 machines as long as you pay for it w/o needing server is what you're saying.
I'm still wondering why it worked prior to the re-install.

[Wim Decorte]

best guess is that the other users were not actually connecting as a guest (using Open Remote) but were opening the files directly from a shared folder...  (which is ae well documented way to corrupt a file).

[The Headache]

Well thanks for your input. I wasn't aware of the corruption issue. Maybe I should just be happy I made it for 4 years with no problems. 3 others were accessing the same files for about 4 years with over 8000 records.They would connect with the recent files menu choice.   

Thanks again.