Using CDs on a network

[JayE]

Hi,

I am looking to reduce the risk of employees inserting unauthorised CDs on their PCs, running or installing programs they are not allowed to and possibly introducing the risk of viruses.

Is it possible to load the contents of selected CDs onto the server, such as manufacturers parts catalogues or demonstration CDs? or to have a CD autochanger which contains a number of CDs employees can access?

An alternative would be to have an external CD-ROM which can be "lent" to employees as needed - but there's no stopping them putting any CD into them whilst they have them?

I would appreciate knowing what the options are.

Thanks for your help.

Regards,
Jay/UK

 

[dilettante]

Try a search for "CD emulators" on the web. There are a number of such solutions out there.

In many cases you can put a CD's contents on a network share and get by that way if you map a drive letter to the share, but if you have a lot of CDs you run out of letters quickly that way.

 

[JayE]

Hi,

Thanks very much for your reply.

I'm sure I've heard of a program from Symantec/Norton about a program to use CDs without a drive.

Is this a CD-emulator? or is that something else?

Regards,
Jay/UK

 

[ironpawz]

Yes that sounds like an emulator. You can often map one drive letter on the network and copy your CD's data into different directories under that drive letter.

You can also stop users installing things by administrative changes depending on your Operating System. If it is NT or Windows 2000 or Linux this is simple enough (but not Win98).

Emulators are not a common business solution though they work most of the time. You could also share one common CD drive (close to yourself maybe) and everyone has a mapping to it. They can request CD's to be put in the drive if there aren't to many people.

 

[Bremmerz]

Alternatively you can look at CD-NAS. This is basically a small box with a CD-ROM drive and a large HDD.

You give the box an IP address, and then you can copy any CD inserted into it as an image onto the internal HDD.

Users can then access this over the LAN and run the CD of their choosing.

I suspect though that CD-Emulator will probably be cheaper than this hardware solution though. If someone annoys you, walk a mile in their shoes. That way you'll be a mile away from them, and you'll have their shoes )