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How do I set up PI to run on a network?
If you want intend to run Professional Investigator on your network, and want the more than one person to run the program simultaneously, you must ensure that you have sufficient additional user licenses.
How it works...
Installing Professional Investigator
on a network isn't difficult. Follow these instructions step-by-step, and you shouldn't go wrong. This example uses Windows 9x/NT, but other versions of Windows will be very similar...
- First, install the program onto the server in the normal way (this could be a dedicated server, or any PC on your network that is likely to be switched on most of the time), ensuring
that it is on the same hard drive as your copy of Windows (usually C: drive). The setup will try to use C:\PI5 which is fine in most situations.
- Make sure that the drive containing Professional Investigator
on your server (usually C:) is 'shared' on your network with full access. This is shown by a small blue hand holding the drive when you look in 'My Computer'. You can double-check this by right-clicking on that drive, then choose Sharing... and ensure that 'Shared as...' is selected as well as 'Full Access'.
- To access this shared copy from other PC's on your network (which we will call 'workstations'), you will need to have a drive letter 'mapped' to the shared drive on the server from
each workstation you want to run it on. In Windows 9x/NT, you do this by opening Network Neighborhood on the workstation, and clicking the [+] next to the server, to show its shared drives. You
should see its C: drive listed here as a yellow folder.
- Right-click on this folder, choose Map Network Drive... and choose a letter to use (such as P: for PI!). Make sure 'Reconnect at Logon' is checked and click OK. This
workstation will now 'see' your server's C: drive as P:
- Finally, you just need to create a shortcut to the server's copy of Professional Investigator
on the desktop of the workstation. Simply right-click on the workstation's desktop, choose New... Shortcut, and look for the file PI5.exe which in this example will be in the PI5 folder of the P: drive. Once created, double-clicking this icon will run
Professional Investigator across the network, allowing you to access the same program and data from anywhere on your network.
This is a lot easier to do than it is to write down! If you have any queries, please email me at pi-support@pi-software.com
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