FileMaker - How to Remote Control a FileMaker Server

VNC or Chicken of VNC

To remote control the FileMaker Server computer, here is what you need to do:

Download a VNC program. There is one here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/cotvnc/

Then you can control the computer without a monitor, or from a remote location. This should work fine for within the office.

Ideally, set the local IP address of the FileMaker Server to a fixed manual address such as 192.168.0.25. Keep it outside the normal range of dynamically assigned IP addresses to prevent it loosing a unique IP address.

If you want to set it up to do remote control from outside the office, you need to configure the firewall to allow this.

This is done by Port Forwarding through your router firewall. You usually add an open port to the Applications and Gaming section of the router. This is also called Port Forwarding, depending on the router.

Port Forwarding on your Router

Go to the area where the FileMaker port is listed and add a new one for VNC. It will look something like this:

Call it VNC and open port number 5900 and point it at the same URL as the FileMaker port, something like 192.168.0.25

With that in place, from ouside the office, open Chicken of VNC and point it at the router's IP address (same as FileMaker) and then enter the password, which is the same as the router.

Using Chicken of VNC

Launch the Program. Start a new session, enter the Host Name, IP address and Password.

One limitation of VNC is that there is no file transfer, but you can email things to yourself from that machine, using web mail.

Remote Control

Once you have logged in successfully, you should see the FileMaker Server computer's desktop as a window on your own computer. You can now do everything you can on this computer, as if you were sitting in front of it, with a monitor and keyboard, except that you can be working almost anywhere.

The only downside is that it is a little slow.