Another cheap-ish shared approach is to host ebase on one single machine and make it accessible on the LAN via VNC or some other inexpensive (VNC's free) remote terminal software. This would totally avoid any issue of whether multiple copies on a network were a problem, because there wouldn't be any. Of course, only one person could access the data at any time.
For LANs with internet IP addresses, this poses significant security risks that probably make a firewall a must. But, hosting multi-user ebase on such a network is a problem whether hackers use the remote terminal software or FileMaker itself to try and break in. It's less of a risk with LANs using network address translation or some other system for non-internet IP addresses, but the fully paranoid network admin ;) may want to take additional measures (firewall?). Some ISPs also block certain ports from being used upstream to the internet from the end-user, which may be another layer of security. -- Eric Johnson Colorado Environmental Coalition -----Original Message----- From: Carl Paulsen [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2002 1:45 PM To: TechRocks Support Subject: [support] Simplified sharing option? Some time ago, Jack Noll (remember Jack?) suggested a simplified sharing setup for groups who can't afford to get into multiple copies of FMP and fancy sharing setups. The idea went like this: 1. Dedicate one computer as the Ebase editing computer and do all data entry and database changes on that computer only (including, of course, all creation of contact records for mailings, etc.). 2. Install the ebase runtime application file on all other machines. 3. Periodically copy the data files from ebase onto those other machines. These computers can use the data, run reports, produce emails, labels, etc. - but can't create contact records b/c those will not be part of the master fileset. My question is this: can such a scenario be used on a network? That is, if the files on the runtime machines are set to single user, is there still any chance that FMP could get confused by these copies of the ebase files? On a related note, is there any protection against confusing FMP gained from putting ebase on non-shared drives? I get questions from groups who want simplified access to multiple copies of ebase w/o purchasing FMP and setting up file sharing systems. Thanks in advance, Carl -- Carl Paulsen New Hampshire Rivers Council 54 Portsmouth Street Concord, NH 03301 603-228-6472 603-228-0423 Fax [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------ Reminder to each recipient: To change your list account preferences, go to http://email.sparklist.com/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=support and enter the email address you used to subscribe to the ebase support list:: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ebase - Relationship Management for Nonprofits, http://www.ebase.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------ Reminder to each recipient: To change your list account preferences, go to http://email.sparklist.com/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=support and enter the email address you used to subscribe to the ebase support list:: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ebase - Relationship Management for Nonprofits, http://www.ebase.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------
