Sharing other peripherals

Sharing other peripherals
Sharing any other peripheral is quite similar to sharing printers. You need to
make sure that you’re sharing the device on the computer that it’s attached
to. Then you need to install that device on another PC by using that device’s
installation procedures. Obviously, we can’t be very specific about such an
installation because of the widely varying processes that companies use to
install devices. Most of the time — like with a printer — you need to install
the drivers for the device that you’re sharing on your other computers.
Note that some of the devices that you attach to your network have integral
Web servers in them. This is getting more and more common. Danny’s
AudioReQuest (www.request.com) music server, for instance, is visible on
his home network and is addressable by any of his PCs. Thus, he can download
music to and from the AudioReQuest server and sync it to his other
devices that he wants music on. Anyone else in the home can do the same —
even remotely, over the Internet. We talk more about the AudioReQuest
system in Chapter 13.
Danny has also set up a virtual CD server in his home to manage all the CDs
that his kids have for their games. This server is shared on the home network.
By using Virtual CD software from H+H Zentrum fuer Rechnerkommunikation
GmbH (www.virtualcd-online.com/default_e.htm; $75 for a five-user
license), Danny has loaded all his CDs onto a single machine so that the kids
(he’s got four kids) can access those CDs from any of their individual PCs
(he’s got four spoiled kids). Instead of looking to the local hard drive for the
CD, any of the kids’ PCs looks to the server to find the CD — hence the name
virtual CD. Now those stacks of CDs (and moans over a scratched CD!) are
gone.