Being a Windows/Access user, I'm total lost on what to do. I've
installed a wireless link for someone to link two offices together.
They are running Filemaker Pro on a MAC over the link at the remote
office (about 100 ft.). The connections show very good but for some
reason drops and reconnects off and on throughout the day (more then
likely from the beacon interval). They are saying that if they are in
the database and filling out a page when the link drops the entire
page data is lost, even if the connection is reestablished. The same
access points worked flawlessly here for 1-1/2 years running MS
Access. Does FM send data per page or per field? Is there a way to
store data local if connection is dropped? Or a way of keeping the
data from being lost? I appreciate any help with this I can get.
Thanks, Jason

Have you tried changing the size of Filemakers Cache. The smaller the
cache, the more frequently filemaker writes to the drive. So, if the cache
is large and the connection drops, then the info in the cache memory will be
lost. You can also write scripts to flush the cache every time a user
performs some action.

Hope this helps
Paul


"Zydenet" <jason (AT) deltank (DOT) com> wrote

Also, I think it might well matter whether you are accessing the files in a
FM Server (Host) environment, or using file sharing to "network" the files.

The best way to share a FileMaker file is to have a computer in which
FileMaker (or better yet, FileMaker Server or FileMaker Server Advanced)
opens the file as shared, then people connect to that computer's copy of
FileMaker (via the Open Remote command) to access the file. The first
computer to open a multiuser file becomes the file's "Host" and is
responsible for managing all access to the file from that point on.

A common mistake is to put the FileMaker files in a shared folder for many
people to see. When this happens,

1) The first person opening the file (UserA) becomes the host
2) Because the file is not on a local disk, performance is sluggish
3) Anyone opening the file while UserA has it open actually connects to
UserA's computer, which then again goes over the network to make updates to
the shared file.
4) UserA can't close the file while other people are using it
5) UserA pulls the plug because they wanna go home, and all other users are
bumped off with lost data, etc.

Ideally, you wouldn't even make the files visible to other users via a
networked folder. You would make sure going through the FileMaker Open
Remote button was the only way to get to them.

So, are you using file sharing to make the file multiuser, or is there a
dedicated FileMaker host for it?

I open a multiuser database over the Internet (using Open Remote) and even
though the net connection has its regular burps and bumps, FileMaker seems
to survive the experience without data loss.

Bill

"Zydenet" <jason (AT) deltank (DOT) com> wrote