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Zedex and Installing Programs on a Peer-to-Peer network
Perhaps the biggest disadvantage to a peer-to-peer network is that programs have to be loaded onto each and every computer. If there are 30 computers in your lab and you have an eight floppy program to load, you have a long task ahead, especially if you have security on your machines that you have to get past first. Here are some helpful hints that often work. The trick is to load them ( the program or the setup disks) onto the Zedex server. Then log into the folder of that setup program and run it.
As the administrator you will soon find that it is helpful to you to have some administrative directories (folders) that you, as an administrator, can use. Call them admina, adminb, adminc, or whatever. Share them fully with you own password. Now they are ready for you to use.
From the Internet:
If you are browsing the internet from a peer workstation and find
a program, like Communicator, that you want to download, use Zedex to log onto one of these
administrative directories first. You might
use the X:\ drive if Netscape is getting its preferences from the Z:\ drive. Save the file to be downloaded to
your administrative folder on the server. In
this way you are saving the setup program directly to the Zedex
server in the administrative directory you want to use.
From Floppies:
Whether or not you can put the software on the Zedex server in
any useful form is dependent on how the setup floppies were
prepared. They often allow installation on a Zedex server so as
to distribute the program to the workstations. You will have to
experiment to see what works. They may even facilitate running the program off the Zedex server, rather than
off the individual peer workstations. Sometimes they will give you
an option as to whether you want to be able to set them up on each workstation,
or on the server itself.
While using File Manager or Explorer on the Zedex server, try to copy them to one of your administrative directories on the Zedex server. Just copy all of the files on the disks to the one administrative directory, as is. Then try running the setup program from a peer workstation (see below). Some disks won't let you copy the disks, but may allow an administrative setup. If you were successful you can put those floppies away for safe keeping.
Some floppies are prepared for an administrative setup.
Usually an administrative setup is strictly for the purpose of
running the programs off the Zedex server, and not for
distributing the programs to the individual workstations so that
they work locally. But some programs will allow you to
choose how you want them set up on the Zedex
server. Try to make an administrative setup.
Load the program onto the Zedex server, but instead of typing a:setup,
type a:setup /a
If it says it can't find the admin.ini (or something like
that), then the disks are not set for network
installation. If they do proceed, then tell them the path
to the administrative directory you want to use (as an
example, c:\programs\admina) ( If you were trying to set them up
while on a workstation logged into one of your administrative folders, them save
to Z:\). If they ask where to
put the MSAPPS files, save them to a sub directory of the same
directory, (as an example, save files to c:\programs\admina
and the MSAPPS files to c:\programs\admina\msapps).
Now you can put those floppies away for safe keeping.
Some may install the program but not as an administrative setup,
only a running program, even though you used the setup /a
method.
Some setup disks have sub directories on each disk, and, because some of these directories have the same name, the program will not setup properly. In this case copy the second disk, third disk, etc., as a sub directory of the first: like c:\prog1 for disk 1, c:\prog1\prog2 for disk 2, c:\prog1\prog3 for disk 3, an so on. In this case you will have to redirect the setup to these consecutive directories one at a time when prompted. Again, you will have to experiment a bit to see what works.
Your last hope: If the floppies won't copy to the Zedex server using the preceding methods, load the program on the Zedex server as a working program. Using File Manager or Explorer, copy the whole directory that was created to a workstation. If the particular program does not rely on any dll's that are added to the Windows directory, or does not make any changes to the Windows setup, this program will work. Use Program manager to set up the icon. If the program requires specific dll's to be added to the windows directory, when you try to run the program, it may tell you what they are. Write them down and copy them from the Zedex server windows directory, to the local windows directory. If this program needs specific changes to ini's or other settings, this method will not work.
Loading the programs on the work stations
This is the easy part. If you were successful and the setup program is on the Zedex server in a directory (for our example, called admina), use Zedex to log onto admina.
Simply double click Setup.exe in the Zedex window.
Or, using the Run command on Program Manager or the Start Taskbar, type in z:setup (or install or whatever the name of the setup program is). If all is well and it usually is, it will load very quickly onto the local hard drive. Just do the same thing on each peer workstation.
If, while trying to load the program on a workstation, you are asked the path to the files, type in Z: or Z:\ ( some are picky about this). If you put all disks as sub directories of the first, then redirect the setup to them when prompted. If it asks for floppies in drive A: (they usually default to the drive you started with) and does not allow you to redirect the setup to the Z: or the Z:\ drive, you might be out of luck.
If you had installed the program on the Zedex server using an
administrative setup so that you could run the program off the
Zedex server, this method will not install the program on the
local drive. See Running
programs from the Zedex server