LAN for the shop? is it ok to connect to internet the pc running the laser?

[Harry Radaza]

I will be ordering a 2nd machine soon. the shop will eventually have 4 computers. 2 are connected to the internet. I want easy file transferability between pc's, so my graphic artists can use and pc available. I guess a local area network (LAN) would be the best thing for this.

However, do I run the risk of viruses/worms if the internet is hooked up to 1 or 2 of the computers? I'm afraid the PC running the machines will crash due to viruses. Or can I isolate this and still have transferability of files?

tried USB flash disks and that was too time consuming.

have zero knowledge on this

[Matt Meiser]

In my experience, if you have a router, run antivirus software on all your computers, have them auto update Windows and the antivirus software, and are careful about what files you open and software you install, you won't have a problem. Knock on wood, I've never had a virus at home and the only worm I was ever attacked with was one of the ones that targeted Internet Information Server when I ran a web server at home. That one didn't even do any damage since I followed Microsoft's advice and move the home directory for the web server.

[Harry Radaza]

ya that would be no problem if I was in the shop. I have 6 graphic artists and 3 sales agents and 2 office staff who all open the internet and check email daily. We know sooner or later someone's gonna open "the best video clip ever" topic or something like that.

[Joe Pelonio]

We've never had a problem with any virus/spyware jumping machines through the newtork on our 3 PCs. Two of them have gotten virus
problems but did not affect the others. When you add protection you might want to increase memory on your graphic PCs. One of mine used for graphics and the internet, after putting in so many anti-virus and spyware programs that are resident started to run into memory problems with graphic files that before were no problem.

[Matt Meiser]

ya that would be no problem if I was in the shop. I have 6 graphic artists and 3 sales agents and 2 office staff who all open the internet and check email daily. We know sooner or later someone's gonna open "the best video clip ever" topic or something like that.

I didn't realize it was a commercial setting. What you could do then is install a router between the "shop floor" and the office. Then use VPN software on laser PC to tunnel through the router to the office network to get access to the files you need. You can also get an "internet security" device from Norton that goes between the Internet and your office network. I don't really know anything about them, but one of our small business customer's has one. Since the computer network is critical to your business, I would really consult a pro.

[Michael McDuffie]

I've been running two PCs and my Epilog through a Linksys Etherfast Cable/DSL router for nearly 5 years now without any problems.

Win95, WIN98 and XP, Zone Alarm and Zone Alarm Pro and AVG antivirus.

I refuse to run any of the virus-like Norton products, they've never done anything for me but slow and/or crash my computers.

I use IntelliScribe to talk to the laser.

Michael

[Matt Meiser]

I've got to agree on Norton. Their product seems to really have gone downhill over the past few years. This year was the final straw for me. I had 2 licenses, 2 computers, and had to keep renewing the license every 2 weeks for a couple months. Finally when I got a new computer and rebuilt the other one and reinstalled on both, it quit asking, but I won't go back next year. I'm trying the 1yr free trial of Computer Associates antivirus on a 3rd computer and it seems good. I installed the free AVG on a computer I'm selling, but haven't really used it so I can't comment there.

[Pat Kearney]

I have had my Epilog Helix connected to a LAN now for about 4 months. I use the internet constantly on three computers and have not had any problems in this regard. However I will pass along the following piece of advice - ensure you use the proper store bought patch cords and cabling for connecting it versus using ones that are "home-made" by either yourself or a friend who does wiring on the side. We lost a day of production because of bad cabling. We thought the problem was related to a recent upgrade in firmware so that what we concentrated on when troubleshooting. It was just coincidental the cable went defective at the same time we upgraded. I spoke with a local computer store here about LAN cabling and he said homemade patch cords are common place and as much as 75% of LAN troubles can be attributed to sporatic problems created by these homemade cords. IMHO it's much better to spend the 5 or 10 dollars and save yourself the trouble.

[Harry Radaza]

Well we've now expanded to 3 laser machines. that's 1 Universal VL300 50 watts and 2 laserpro mercury 25 watts and looking to add a 4th.

still haven't networked but really am planning to now. As I was told, it would be best to network all machines and save all files in the server. And to play it safe we will just have the Internet connection in a different network and transfer images and files manually using flash disks.

Am i making sense ? or do any of you have other suggestions ?

harry

[Bruce Volden]

I have 3 machines networked~via an old "clunky" print server. My main graphics machines (1 XP, 1 WIN98) hooked to a router, feeds the print server. No other programs are loaded on this machine (server) other than what is needed to tx files. Been this way for 3+ yrs now with NO problems, and the added benefit of having my old clunker serial port machine not gobbling up my time waiting for the file tx!! I used to have a bit of a wait sending files to the serial port.:mad:



Bruce

[Joe Pelonio]

If the files are in the shared files folder on the server, the other pcs having their own anti-virus and anti spyware programs would catch anything as it came in. If the server has good protection nothing should get in anyway, even if one of the people online caught something. The only real problem is when someone downloads a new virus that's not yet in the database of the protection software. The flash drive method is not really any safer then the network, once you put it into an infected pc.
I'd just install several programs on all of them and do auto updates, and schedule automatic scan regular scans for when you are not working.

I currently run:

AVG
Spybot
Spyware Doctor
Noadware
cwshredder

Which all seem to be fine with no conflicts. The big ones like Norton always conflict with others and are huge resource hogs, I have had them and took them out.

You'll also be safer to use something like firefox rather than IE, and something other than outlook for e-mail. Those hackers love to attack Microsoft products.

[Dave Jones]

I've seen people say they have conflicts with Norton, but I've never had a single problem and have used it for years (since before Windows) on a lot of computers with massive amounts of programs. I switched last year to Symantec Corporate AV for my Windows server and 4 main computers. I have Norton AV on the computer I use for the laser (cheaper than adding another 5 seats to the server and SAV licenses). I will not use Norton Internet Security or System Works, because those I have had conflicts with.

I only have one laser, but as far as file storage I use a NAS (network attached storage) file server from LinkSys, which is Unix based and a stand alone box on the LAN. Unlikely for it to catch any viruses from the Windows based machines on the LAN. Of course an infected computer could still erase it as well as any shared files on any machine on the LAN, but if you do regular backups then things are fairly safe. I use external USB hard drives for backup so I can unplug them after backup and stick them on a shelf. No chance of a virus getting to them there between backups. I rotate between 3 backup drives so if there is a drive failure I still have the previous 2 backups on the shelf.

The nice thing about using the NAS is it is always on, so any of the computers on the LAN can get to the files without having to turn on a specific machine that has them.

[Jeff Lehman]

If you're hesitant to run the Security Suites out there that's understandable since a lot of them do use a lot of system resources, but not running any anti-virus software is pretty risky, even if you backup your data frequently. Running just antivirus software is not much of a system drain, but the suites with their software firewalls can drag a system down. There are also hardware firewalls out there...we use a Netgear FVS318 Router/Firewall which has 8 ports. It cost around $100.00.

You would be surprised how many times you will get "pinged" when you have an always on internet connection....

Microsoft has recently released a security suite called One Care (http://www.windowsonecare.com/) that doesn't seem to suck many system resources...its priced right too! Around $40.00 for three computers.

Just my two cents worth...

[Jerry Allen]

Harry,
Just to make it simple, just buy a router, a D-Link 624, Linksys, Netgear, and make sure it has a firewall. Connect all the machines to it and to the net. Pretty simple. You are at no significant greater risk than you currently are since you are connected to the net already. You should be backing up your important files regardless of what you do. And the folks accessing the net need to know that opening suspicious email, cruising gambling sites, porn, and doing unecessary stuff like downloading screensavers, emoticons and any software that you don't authorize is against the rules.
I also recommend AVG, Spybot, and Adaware. All are free or cheap.
As a side note, Draw files are VBA (visual basic) capable and therefore have the potential to carry a virus. Although I've never heard of it happening, there is the potential.