Port 5003 and disconnecting problems

[tandrews]

I have posted similar queries in another forum, but am hoping that there is a connection here with certain port 5003 issues:

I have several users working with a FileMaker Server hosted database who are complaining that they are being disconnected frequently. The most common message seems to be:

Communication with the host was interrupted and could not be re-established(-3259) or sometimes (-1072) (Close File).

This is on a Blue G3 Tower running OS 9.1 and FileMaker Server 5.0v2.

The majority of complaints are coming from users across DSL connections. Each building has a Cisco 1605 with two ethernet ports, one connected to their building and the other connected to a DSL etherset, part of a bridge group provided by our ISP.

The remote users are using FileMaker 5.5 to connect to the database here via TCP/IP. It appears that oftentimes, when a user is disconnected with the above error, when they go to the "Hosts" dialog and click on the hostname in that dialog, they get the "squiggly line" but never see the databases being hosted by the server. Keep in mind that while all this is going on, other users at other buildings are happily working away on the same server.

Does anyone see this as a port 5003 issue? I am not blocking anything, but was told by tech support that this could be a problem and that perhaps blocking all UDP traffic on port 5003 might have an effect on this. Any information regarding this would be greatly appreciated... I have some pretty frustrated users right now.

Thanks...

[jasonwood]

I had similar problems when I exchanged our DLink router for the new Apple AirPort basestation (2 ethernet ports). Users who connected in from outside our network were getting disconnected frequently when the Base Station was functioning as a router.

We went back to the DLink and now use the Base Station only for wireless traffic and everything works perfectly... so maybe it's your router?

[IdealData]

FWIW

I have an almost identical server set up (I'm on 8.6) with a 100Mb LAN connected via 128K leased line to our remote site.

Once in a while users at the remote site do get disconnected and I can only attribute this to network traffic at the time as we also use the same line for email and file copying.

This is similar to your DSL users, but bear in mind that the client upload bandwidth will be less than download. Also, see this from the other end !

HTH