Hi - We're a vendor exploring remote access options of Ebase for a non-profit organization who wants to access a central database over a modem. We have not found any good options and want to report our findings, plus find out from others what workable options they have found. The first most serious issue we have found is with filemaker pro itself wanting to send all the records in the database to the client upon startup. That problem in itself causes problems with the rest of the possible access solutions. For remote access, that behaviour is basically unacceptable. We tested a VPN (virtual private network) connection, which was the solution we thought would be good. It works - but too slowly for a modem on the client side. It clients had a DSL connection (faster) then some issues may be tolerable - but it doesn't change the fact that filemaker will still send you all the database records on startup. The second remote access we tested was terminal services. Filemaker pro doesn't support terminal services, so that option will not allow a multi-user, but also still sends all records on startup We also tested the publishing of filemaker on the web, and when we found the limitations of that, we have come to the conclusion that there are no good solutions for using filemaker in a remote access way. It is not a good database solution in this type of environment because of its wanting to send all the records to the client on startup instead of just sending what the client wants. I've looked at one email from last july where a user had received two proposals from two different vendors to do this. One proposal was for the VPN, and the other was for a terminal services arrangement. Again, we have found neither of those two solutions work - due to inherent way filemaker pro works. I'm interested in feedback from people doing remote access. What have we missed? How are people doing this successfully? How big are your databases? If you would share a phone number, I would be interested in talking with those of you who are doing this successfully. Sincerely, Sara Moshman MetaLogic, Inc. 4701 Innovation Drive Lincoln, NE 68521
