Hey List,

I'm new to the list, but not to Filemaker, and I have a big question...

We serve quite an active group of web sites from a 500mhz G4 running Webstar 4.4, Lasso 3.6.6, and Filemaker 5. We have recently been experiencing more and more hits, and the Lasso/Filemaker part of the equation is begining to become overwhelmed. We are about to buy a second computer, a dual 1ghz G4, the idea being that we will put Filemaker 5.5 on X on the new machine, and have Webstar and Lasso on the old machine running the Filemaker Remote Module. We don't have time to convert all of our old lasso to Lasso 5 right now, so Webstar and Lasso will have to stay runingon OS9 for now.

That said, what would be the best way of increasing performance with the second machine? Filemaker 5.5 on X on the Dual 1Ghz? Filemaker 5 on 9 on the Dual? Webstar on 9 o the Dual?

It is a bit of an emergency actually, so any ideas and suggestions would be greatfully recieved.

Thanks in advance for any help,

Lee Parry

Hi

Firstly FMPro doesn't support dual processors so it isn't worth buying a dual processor for FMPro.....I'm not sure about WebSTAR V or Lasso V (for future) you would have to check. I also believe that WebSTAR 4.x or Lasso 3.x don't support dual processors - the application will work but not that much faster (if any faster) than on a single processor machine - again I would check this with the vendors for the latest info.

If you don't have a lot of time on your hands I would personally recommend sticking with what you know and run FMPro on OS 9.x but if you are comfortable running OS X then there is no reason why you can't or shouldn't

Swithching to Lasso V and WebSTAR V will actually require you buying two new boxes as Lasso V runs on it's own box and doesn't share with WebSTAR anymore. Not recommended route for the short term if you don't have the time to configure and test as you have said. A good investment for the furture though

Be aware that Lasso Remote module is much less forgiving of imperfect coding (the dreaded 102 error etc.) and doesn't support field level operators (operator begin - operator end etc) but this can be got around with some nifty inline - variable and conditional "jigery pokery" - this is because it requires WC to be enabled on all your databases (not essential with FMP5 module due to the communication using apple events not TCP/IP)

Make sure you have a nice fresh version of WC down loaded I spent HOURS trying to workout why filemaker remote wasn't seeing my databases, I thought had the latest version but it only worked after I downloaded a new one.......

The speed will be increased significantly and you'll notice MacOS memory leaks are reduced also. I would recommend updating to WebSTAR 4.5 available at http://www.starnine.com

Good luck