Setting up a CD tower necessary?

[Guest]

Hi,

The company I provide IT support for has asked me to see about putting
together a CD tower. There are several CDs that employees need access to
regularly, and these CDs are updated monthly (meaning we get a new CD every
month). We also have a limited supply of the CDs and I don't think they can
be copied (at least not legally).

I'm thinking I can probably put two computers on the network with just Win2k
Pro installed, three CDrom drives each, share the drives and then map them on
the user's workstations (there aren't many users) and this would be
sufficient. I don't want to go ahead, though, unless I know what I'm getting
myself in to so I'd like to ask the opinion of the users/moderators of this
group to get their $.02. Does this sound like a feasable solution? Better
yet, if you were asked to do the same thing how would you go about doing it?
Thanks...

 

[Laura E. Hunter \(MVP\)]

Remember that Windows 2000/XP PRofessional will only support 10 concurrent
connections to a network share (even a CD-ROM drive), so if you need to
regularly support more users than that you'll need to deploy a server.

You should also verify that sharing out the CDs in this way is in keeping
with the software vendor's license agreement.

Assuming both of these are true, I'm doing something pretty similar right
now to allow access to some archived documents on CD-ROM for my accounting
area.

 

[Guest]

There will never be more than 10 users at a time connected to the share. As
for copyrite laws I'm not certain where we stand. Regardless, you said
you're dealing with a similar situation at work, so how are you going about
addressing it?
And, disregarding the problem associated with the number of concurrent
connections and copyrite laws, is my idea sufficient for our needs? I just
want to hear some confirmation from someone who knows that this will work
before I do anything. Thanks.

 

[Rob Stow]

Hi,

The company I provide IT support for has asked me to see about putting
together a CD tower. There are several CDs that employees need access to
regularly, and these CDs are updated monthly (meaning we get a new CD every
month). We also have a limited supply of the CDs and I don't think they can
be copied (at least not legally).

I'm thinking I can probably put two computers on the network with just Win2k
Pro installed, three CDrom drives each, share the drives and then map them on
the user's workstations (there aren't many users) and this would be
sufficient. I don't want to go ahead, though, unless I know what I'm getting
myself in to so I'd like to ask the opinion of the users/moderators of this
group to get their $.02. Does this sound like a feasable solution? Better
yet, if you were asked to do the same thing how would you go about doing it?
Thanks...

Consider also using a single server (even if the OS is just W2K
Pro) with a single CD drive.

Just install virtual CD software, copy images of the desired CD's
onto the server, set up your virtual CD drives, then share out
those drives.

Alternatively, store the CD images on the server and install
virtual CD software on the *clients*. Users of the clients will
then have to select which images to load into their virtual CD
drives.

Virtual CD software is easy to find on the web. Most have
feature trial-ware versions that are fully functional except that
they only let you have one virtual CD drive at a time. To have
multiple virtual CDs you will need to get the payware version.

And note, as someone else already said in her own reply, that W2K
Pro will only allow a total of ten connections to anything you
share out.

 

[Oli Restorick [MVP]]

I'd also go with a solution that copied the contents of the CDs to a server.
Hard disk space is cheap and CD-ROMs are awkward and slow.

Oli

 

[Guest]

I found an application that claims to address this very issue. It's called
Virtual CD (I'm assuming its from the makers of Virtual PC which is a decent
application). Anyone have any experience with this application?

I'd also go with a solution that copied the contents of the CDs to a server.
Hard disk space is cheap and CD-ROMs are awkward and slow.

Oli

 

[Dave Patrick]

Different developer.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
|I found an application that claims to address this very issue. It's called
| Virtual CD (I'm assuming its from the makers of Virtual PC which is a
decent
| application). Anyone have any experience with this application?

 

[Jetro]

Either virtual or physical CDs and mappings are limited by 26 letters.
Junction points or just Network Places override this limitation if you copy
CD content onto HDD and or removable media.

 

[Guest]

"Laura E. Hunter \(MVP\)" <laura(nospamplease)> wrote:

Top posting????? Learn how to post in news groups, please... If you
are a professional then act like one and set the example.