Slow, SLOW Filemaker server.

Must have taken at least 10 minutes to connect to my database at home
via my public IP. I tried it on my local network and it's quite snappy.
In activity monitor, it doesn't seem to be using too many CPU cycles nor
RAM. Why, oh why is it that slow? Just working with it was painful
since the beachball would just spin as my client was waiting for me to
access his invoice.

I'd go out and buy a brand new tower if I knew it would be faster, but
will it improve the speed much?

And can anyone take a look at my database, I really need to get in touch
with a developer that can do the work for me ASAP.

Thanks

Re: Slow, SLOW Filemaker server.

Hi Nashton

There is a lot that can be done to improve performance of FileMaker
Server communicating over the internet. Here are some of the factors:

1. Version of FileMaker Server - What version are you running. More
recent version of FileMaker are able to share data more efficiently.
They are also able to do some activities at the server end, this saves
having to send the data across the internet for processing by your
computer.

2. Internet connection speed - A 1MB/s connection is bare minimum in
my experience. Remember if your connection DOWNLOAD speed is running
at 1 MB/s, the UPLOAD speed is about 0.3 MB/s. Check the speed of the
internet at both ends i.e. home and office. Go to for example www.speedtest.net.
The system may be waiting for the page layouts and graphics to
transfer over the internet.

3. System design - A basic FileMaker database with minimal scripting,
will respond far faster than a custom solution with complex scripting
being run on startup and at the press of function buttons. Take a look
at the startup script, you may find that it is doing a find, a sort
and a few other things before it's fully started. You could spend
developer time on tuning the performance of your databases or spend
the money on upgrading your internet connection speed.

4. Graphics - Check what graphics you have pasted on your layout or
stored in globals

5. Startup - On fairly complex solutions, even with a fast connection,
it can take a minute or two to startup. Once it's started, and the
first search has been done, performance is quite tolerable. This is
without doing any development to tune performance.

Please let us know what version of FileMaker you are running and what
your internet connection speeds are.

Regards
Kevin Smith

On Nov 7, 11:13 am, Nashton wrote:
> Must have taken at least 10 minutes to connect to my database at home
> via my public IP. I tried it on my local network and it's quite snappy.
> In activity monitor, it doesn't seem to be using too many CPU cycles nor
> RAM. Why, oh why is it that slow? Just working with it was painful
> since the beachball would just spin as my client was waiting for me to
> access his invoice.
>
> I'd go out and buy a brand new tower if I knew it would be faster, but
> will it improve the speed much?
>
> And can anyone take a look at my database, I really need to get in touch
> with a developer that can do the work for me ASAP.
>
> Thanks