🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug11.220902.13383@newshost.lanl.gov> davids@gardener.lanl.gov
(David Simmons) writes:

>Be VERY Careful of setting up a FM Pro database across a network.
>Small abberations in your network can cause catasrophic data losses.
>Claris' suggestion is to have a dedicated server for FM Pro [sic]. I don't
>know about you, but we didn't want to shell out for a Mac *just* for
>FM Pro.  In my experience, and I am only one datapoint, FM Pro is
>NOT very stable over a shared network, especially if multiple users
>are sharing the file simultaneously.

We use FM Pro as well over a network, and I won't even begin to go into the
snail pace responses that occur from running the program over a network, but I
have found one difference between our database hosted by a server as opposed to
by the first user to get to it.

If a user opens QuickMail in our Department while hosting FM Pro (actually, any
dialog box for that matter) it appears to completely stop FM Pro's activity. 
This in turn causes users who have logged onto the database remotely to wait,
and wait, and wait until the individual that has hosted to close these said
windows.

On the whole (althogh you didn't ask for my opinion of the package) FM seems to
be a good starter database program, but if you need versatility, you'll soon
find yourself looking for a replacement as we're doing.  Claris, while the
Windows platform is important, I think it crucial that you refine the
networking ability of FMPro.  Even with an FX as a database server, the remote
user sees no real speed increase from normal operations.

---------
Patrick Parker
LAN Manager - University of Minnesota
pharmacy@epx.cis.umn.edu