Using the network

["Jody R. Lorig" <jlorig -at- KAVOURAS -dot- COM>]

Hi folks.

It seems that the pet peeve about working on documents on a
network versus using the network only to backup files evoked some
very good responses from many people.

Since nobody else has brought this up, I will. If you have a master
document that has several other documents linked to it (the master
has the content for all of these documents but through the use of
conditional text these other linked documents only use a portion of
the master), where do you keep it (the master), who has access to
make additions/changes to the master document? The implication here
is that if someone is in the process of updating the master document,
which in some systems may prevent the users from accessing the master
file until it is closed, how do you get around this?

Another point that hasn't been mentioned is the amount of space
available for use on the network. Maybe our network is the only
one that has this problem, but there are times when a file I am
working on is large enough that the amount of overhead required to
allow for a backup file and temporary working files exceeds the
amount of space available on the network drive. When my program hits
the space limit on the network hard drive, it locks up or asks if I
want to save without changes. How do those of you who have open
documents on a network handle this condition?

Do any of you out there use the capability of using Windows 95/98/NT
to assign your computer hard drive as a network accessible drive? My
understanding is that anyone running these operating systems can make
their drive available to all network users, have it backed up by the
network as though it resided on the network, and would, in effect, be
a part of the network.

Jody Lorig
DTN Kavouras Weather Services
jlorig -at- kavouras -dot- com


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