Specifications

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Configuration Tip -- The print server does not have a name, it must be accessed by IP address.
This is inconvenient if the address keeps changing. The router’s quasi-static address feature comes
in handy to fix the servers address. Once the router assigns the server an address it is frozen. This
locks the IP address to the Ethernet MAC address. The MAC address is a unique address assigned
by the manufacture to each device.
16 Scanning -- Paper to Data
Flat bed scanners allow documents or photographs to be converted to an image file. These files can be
faxed or incorporated into other documents. Text documents can be processed by Optical Character
Recognition (OCR) software to convert the graphics images to text that can be understood by text editors.
The scanner is an Umax 2200 it uses USB to connect to the computer.
The scanner also functions as a poor mans copying machine. Scanned images can be sent directly to the
printer.
We investigated networking the scanner. This proved difficult since the scanner needs to know where to put
scanned images and without user intervention each file is named with a sequence number. The solution we
came up with it to connect the scanner to a PC workstation and create a shared image folder on the server.
Images are scanned using Adobe Photoshop running on the workstation, named, and then saved on the
server. Once on the server any PC on the LAN can retrieve the files.
We ran into a problem with the Umax tool bar application that supports the scanner buttons. It often caused
Windows to hang on shutdown. We finally gave up and removed the application.
17 Local Server – Just Like the Big Kids
The server performs several tasks, file sharing, real time clock synchronization, and private web server. At
first we used a laptop as the server. This was convenient because it was self-contained but had limited disk
storage capacity. When the laptop died it was replaced with a recycled 200Mz Pentium desktop with a new
45GB hard drive. If storage requirements increase it has room for another disk.
17.1 File Sharing
One of the benefits of having a network is the ease files can be transferred between machines. This allows
online backup of important files. File sharing makes bringing up a new computer easier since device
drivers and application software are all located in one convenient place.
Windows makes connecting to remote drives easy. The user can connect to a remote drive as needed or
Windows can automatically connect at boot time. Mapped drives show up as additional drive letters. In a
peer-to-peer environment shares can be password protected to limit access. We created a share on the
server for each network user.
Security Tip -- Some of the most dangerous viruses look for shared drives. If they find a shared
drive they can wreak havoc on it not just the machine the virus is on. Password protects any shares
that contain valuable data.
17.2 Time Service
The Internet allows access to extremely accurate time standard. This eliminates the problem of drifting and
inaccurate computer clocks. We use a program called Tardis 2000. The software runs on the local server
and periodically polls a public timeserver. In the US the National Institute Standards and Test (NIST)
maintain a number of public timeservers. Tardis uses the time information from the NIST server to set the