People keep asking me "Can multiple people access Indie Band Manager over the web?" and the answer is yes. And there are no monthly subscription charges or hosting fees either. You just need to own FileMaker 8.5 or above and have internet access. And it is a lot easier than you think.
Setting Up Filemaker for Remote Access for Free
The problem with remote access to a FileMaker Pro solution like Indie Band Manager is that many internet connections will not give you a static IP address. DynDNS solves that problem for you and for free.
First, let's give credit to Janet Tokerud, who gave me the basic steps of accessing Filemaker over the web. This process takes about 10 minutes.
* Go to http://dyndns.com/ and set up a free account. You will have to choose a username and password and then confirm your account by clicking on the link in the email they send you after you sign up.
* When you get back to your account, go to Hostnames and choose "Add a New Hostname". You have to choose a domain that your hostname will have. I left the service type alone. So it was set as "Host with IP address". The site will autodetect your IP. Just click on the link underneath the IP Address box to choose the address that DynDNS found. Then click Create New Host. And that’s it for here.
* Log into your router. Usually 192.168.1.1, but yours may vary. Your router should have a menu for DDNS in the setup section. Just enter your username, password, and DynDNS domain name. You are done with this part
* Now go to the menu in your router settings where you forward ports. On ours it was under Applications and Gaming. These are the ports that have to be forwarded to whichever IP address in your network that has Filemaker running: 5003, 50003, and 50006. So I made three entries here by pasting 5003 in the External Port box, pasting in the Internal Port Box, choosing Both (TCP and UDP) for the protocol, and enter the correct IP of the Filemaker installation in the To IP Address box. Make sure to enable them before you save the settings.
* Now, with every Filemaker installation that will be using the remote access: Go to Open Remote under File. Choose Favorite Hosts from the dropdown box. Then click the Add button. Enter the domain you chose at DynDNS in the Host’s Internet Address box.