System Requirements:
- FileMaker Pro 11
The Problem:
After installing FileMaker Pro version 11 you machines start to grind to a halt, particularly when there is any form of network activity and in particular when you attempt to use network drives, UNC paths and Windows shares.
The system may also present sluggish performance in general.
More Information:
Excuse my sarcasm here, but this one has annoyed me quite considerably. The reason why my Windows 7 laptop has had nearly a week of performing like a 486 is because the FileMaker installer demanded that Apple Bonjour be installed along with it.
Just to clarify that in bullet points. FileMaker Pro installed
- Apple Bonjour
- Apple Update Manager
Apparently this is “required” to locate computers, devices and services on IP networks. Apparently FileMaker needs this to Discover Remote Networks…
What absolute tripe.
The only reason why it’s here is that FileMaker has a Mac version and instead of writing modules for the Mac to use more supported file sharing systems they decided to force Apple craplet installation on Windows users.
Apple Bonjour uses multicast DNS to flood the network to look for peer devices in the same broadcast domain, turning your machine into a LAN christmas tree if you have it running. It’s also installed by i:Tunes/Pod/Pad/Phone installs and probably QuickTime if Apple have anything to do with it. Oh and Apple update manager will try and force it on you if you don’t have it.
The Fix
Take it off people. You don’t need Bonjour to access IP resources, you can type the IP address. This is what is causing you all the problems. Don’t forget to remove apple update manager too if you don’t have any other Apple programs running and save your machines from yet another startup daemon.
Do make sure that you are using the latest patches for FileMaker. The latest at writing is 11.0.2.220. You can install the updates remotely, information on corporate deployment for Windows can be found in the read me file that accompanies the update.
If you’re a corporate administrator do not deploy bonjour in your environment, it’s a terrible system that overrides any work you’ve done in locking down your CIFS based network and as I’m sure you can tell, having made a mess of my laptop, I very much don’t support it.
Incidentally, FileMaker still works without it, just make sure you install all the latest patches when you deploy it.