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[BigMike]

Okay, its a dumb question I know, but I wanted to ask before I tried doing it. I have three computers networked in my home. Only one of the computers has a CD burner in it. Is it possible to operate the CD burner from one of the other computers on the network? There are several reasons why this would be of use for me, but I didn't know if it were possible. Thanks for the advice..

[claudio]

In general the answer is NO, in the sense that you do not see a networked cd burner as a local one

But I believe you can work around it with a client/server sw that allows you to see the desktop of you netwroked machine with the cdburned. If you then have all the machines mounting all the disks, you can in effect do burn data from any machine, controlling the burner from any node

I'm not sure about the realibity of this approach for burning... I've used it but for other purposes

Claudio

[BigMike]

Thanks for the info Claudio. It was just an idea I was tossing around in my head. I will check further on the ideas you mentioned.

[bbuckeye]

Isn't it possible to "share" the burner on the host machine and then map that as a drive letter on one of the machines you wish to use.  Then install the burning software on the client referencing the mapped drive as the burner.  Granted, you would have to insert the blank media in the host computer and then go back to the other, but in theory it seems to me it would work.  I should say I've never tried this.  but I have shared my burner so someone on the network could access data from it.  Might be worth a try.

[BigMike]

Well, I tried sharing the burner, mapping it and then installing Nero on the other computer on the net, but the burner is still not detected by either Nero or MJ. The drive is mapped and shows up in explorer okay, but I quess the burner software needs more than that to work remotely. It was worth a shot though, thanks for the suggestion.

[JGourd]

Yes you can!

Be prepared to shell out $6K for an Odixion Digimatic.

http://www.odixion.com

[BigMike]

I would like to avoid the 6k figure, if at all possible

[BigMike]

Okay, after looking for a solution, I found a pretty good one. It's not as simple as having my computer just recognize the remote CD Burner, but it's close. Going on the suggestion made here in this thread, I looked for a client/server program, and found an open source one called VNC. It was programmed by the department of engeering at Cambridge University and it freeware. It is very small, uses few resources, and gives complete control of the desktop of another computer. Nothing complicated, just run it and it sets it self up perfectly. I have already burned several CD's by running the burner software remotely on the other computer, and telling the software to burn the selected files from the remote computer. Also found out the program is real nice for doing anything on the remote computer, since the remote computers desktop is now yours while the program is running. I have used other Virtual desktop programs such as netmeeting, but this one is the best I have found for this purpose. For those who might be interested, here is the VNC homepage:

http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/

If anyone knows of a better freeware program such as this, please let me know. This one however, seems to work flawless.