Filemaker Pro Database Remote Internet Sharing

How to set Filemaker Pro 9 to share your database to other Filemaker clients out of the office running the Filemaker Pro application.

This is not the Instant Web Sharing (IWS) solution which is limited in FMP functionality and will be covered elsewhere. This is not FMP Server.

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1. Open your database in Filemaker Pro 9 from the computer you wish to Host the database. I know at least FMP 6 - 9 can host remote databases. I will refer only to FMP 9.
2. Goto: File>Sharing>Filemaker Network...
3. Turn on Network Sharing to share your open files using TCP/IP.
4. For now leave the Network Access to File, to All Users, you can change this at your own discretion. Click OK.
5. Goto: File>Manage>Accounts & Privileges...
6. Make sure Admin is turned on, select Admin, Click on Edit...
7. Set a Password. Click OK.
   
8. If you have a Router, you must:
9. Open the start/end/internal/external TCP port (AKA, gateway, pinhole, service) 5003 (this is the universal FMP Database port) and specify which computer IP is hosting the FMP database file in your local network (LAN). For example, 192.168.1.4, is the host computer IP with the FMP database open and running in the local office network. Find this number by logging into your router and identifying the database host computer and its LOCAL IP address. That is, inquiries from the outside world to your host computer that have FMP data, will be forwarded by your router to your specified local network host computer 192.168.1.4 through port 5003.
   
10. Find out the IP address of your WAN (wide area network), that is, get the IP address that your broadband carrier assigns you (for example, 60.123.4.123), or know your domain name (for example, domain.name.com)
    
11. Your database host/server setup is now complete.
12. From a remote location outside of the office or outside of the local network where the database computer is running, log in through the internet to the database with FMP 9 running on your host computer by doing the following:
13. Open Filemaker Pro 9 on a remote computer.
14. Goto: File>Open Remote.
15. From, View: Favorite Hosts,
16. Click Add...
17. Type in the static IP address or domain name, for example, 60.123.4.123 or domain.name.com.
18. If you have a dynamic IP that changes when the router is restarted or if there is a power failure, you can obtain a static pseudo domain name from sites such as www.no-ip.com.
19. Click Save.
20. Your Host and Available File(s) should show up, after a brief pause.
21. Click Open.
22. In the future, for faster reference, you can:
23. Goto: File>Open Recent>DatabaseFile(host computer)

Resources:
http://www.filemaker.com/help/13-Sharing%20data6.html
http://www.filemaker.com/help/Non-TOC%20Topics51.html
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