FileMaker Pro 6 Can't Connect to Hosts

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Level 1

5 points

FileMaker Pro 6 Can't Connect to Hosts

This is a followup message to a previous discussion topic ("Tiger Filemaker can't see network").

Mac clients on our network have randomly been unable to connect to remotely shared FileMaker databases using FileMaker Pro 6.0.4. When clicking the "hosts" button in the Open dialog box (or choosing "Open remote" from the File menu, we get a spinning beach ball and the list of available servers never shows up.

Recently opened remote servers that appear in FileMaker's recent documents open just fine when chosen that way. Windows clients can evidently access the list of shared databases without any problem.

This only happens about 50% of the time. Our tech. support person suspects that some computer on the network is sending out gibberish that's confusing the Mac clients (we're all running current versions of OS X 10.4) and FileMaker never times out to just show what it's found so far.

Has anyone been able to find a solution or workaround for this? (FileMaker tech. support wasn't able to duplicate the problem or come up with a solution.)

G5, PowerBook G4, Power Mac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7) FileMaker Pro 6.0.4

Posted on Jul 25, 2006 2:21 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 27, 2006 3:14 PM in response to reciprocity

I would need to know more about the network and on what the Filemaker server is hosted and how the server is configured to answer this. Please also state which version of Server and Client you are using in each case.

Xserve, g5, g4, Powerbook g4, mac mini Mac OS X (10.4.3) FSA member

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Answer 2

reciprocity Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 8, 2006 10:56 AM in response to Donald Collier1

Thanks so much for trying to help us figure out a solution to this frustrating problem, Donald. It's annoying because it only appears to affect Mac clients, and it's a completely intermittent issue: one minute, everything works fine, the next minute, Macs get the spinning beach ball and "never" (5-10 minutes worth of spinning before we give up and force quit FM Pro) time out when trying to show the list of available hosts.

Here's what our tech. person had to say about our setup (on the client end, we're running FileMaker Pro 6.0.4):

The server version is 5.5.0.1. It's running on a Windows 2000 SP4 server w/ all the latest patches. The server is a Dell PowerEdge 1750 with dual processor 1.1Ghz, 512MB RAM.

However, I doubt if this info. will be much help, because the server is actually located on another network. The problem is that the "spinning wheel" keeps going and never even lets you select the server from the manual list (ie, our server won't come up automatically since it's located on another subnet).

Our network setup is pretty basic--All clients are on the same subnet, using TCP/IP, and go through a Checkpoint Firewall to access the server, which is located in the DMZ. We are running a Windows 2003 Active Directory domain that users authenticate to. However, if a user does not authenticate, it does not bar them from accessing the network--they should still be able to access the Filemaker server without problems.

This phenomenon seems to occur only on Macintosh clients. PCs seem to take a little bit longer than normal to scan the network, but the list eventually comes up within 15-30 seconds. It never keeps "searching" the way the Mac clients do, so obviously it has something to do with either the Mac clients' ability to "time out" or perhaps a network setting on the Macs that we're overlooking.

This same problem is occuring out at another site on a regular basis.
Their network equipment is totally different from ours, and their Filemaker server is the same version but located on the same subnet as the clients, yet the exact same situtation occurs--Macs get that "spinning wheel" while the PCs can connect to the server just fine. I really don't think it's a server issue but something to do with how the Mac clients "scan" the network looking for a Filemaker server.

Any ideas or suggestions?

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