[comp.databases] 4th Dimension, networking over phone lines

judge@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Peter Judge) (11/18/90)

Hi,
I am a Mac literate person who knows only a little about
networking or databases. 

I need to network three to five macs running a 
4th Dimension application. Three machines are
located in separate regions so I would have to 
connect them via telephone lines; the others would
be connected by cable.

My questions are these:

1)	How does 4th Dimension make use of modems to 
	share a distributed database?

	Does it contain routines to implement networking
	over phone lines, or do I need a bridge? 
	(Technical information regarding the 
	purchase, installation and use of bridges 
	would be welcome).

2)	Is there recommended networking software
	to use with 4th Dimension (Appletalk, TOPS...)?

3)	If it turns out to be too complicated (and
	expensive) to network the machines via phone lines,
	would it be relatively straightforward to merge the 
	regional databases (only new records since last merge) 
	once a week into a master file via floppy disk?

	This would involve identifying which records 
	had been entered since the last merge on
	each of the regional machines and exporting them
	to an ascii file. Running the floppy over to
	the central machine and importing the file
	into the master database. 

	Would the databases on the distributed machines
	have to have *exactly* the same structure
	for this to work?

4)	Do I need a separate copy of 4th Dimension 
	for each machine, or can I use runtime modules?

5)	What is the minimum RAM requirement to run the
	4th Dimension development system?

6)	If I can use runtime modules, what is the minimum
	RAM required?

Thank you in advance for your help.
Please respond via e-mail since I don't read this
newsgroup very often.
==========================
Peter Judge
judge@credit.erin.utoronto.ca

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judge@credit.erin.utoronto.ca	(Peter Judge) |)
judge@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca 
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