Networking

TIP works well with the security and networking features that are built into Windows.  This chapter will summarize the most important points about how to keep your data safe, especially in a network environment.  But this isn’t a complete guide to Windows data security and networking.  For full details, you’ll need to consult appropriate books about your version of Windows.

Storing Your Data on a Network

Your organization may choose to store all its TIP files (job descriptions, evaluations, etc.) in a central repository.  This is easy to do, using any kind of Windows networking, because TIP can work with network files just as easily as files on your own disk drive.

Making a place to store the files

On a networked computer, create a folder.  (Think about where you’re putting it; it can go anywhere, but your desktop or My Documents folder is probably not the best place.  Consider putting it in the root directory of drive C.)

Then, right-click on the folder and choose Properties, then Sharing.  Tell Windows to “Share This Folder.”

Other users will be able to see the folder in My Network Places.  You also need to set some security parameters, which we’ll discuss in the next section.

Storing files in the shared folder

You’ll notice that whenever TIP prompts you to open or save a file, “My Network Places” is one of the options:

If you click on “My Network Places,” you can browse your entire network and see the shared folders on it.  This is how people on other computers will get to the shared folder that you just created.  You can even get to it that way yourself if you want to.

If you don’t see what you’re looking for, choose “Entire Network” and search for it.

TIP will remember where you last opened a TIP file, and will automatically look in the same place again next time.

Can/Should We Install TIP on the Network?

You should generally install TIP on each individual computer, for both licensing and performance reasons.  The TIP software itself, including the library of predefined job descriptions, occupies only a small amount of disk space.  It should be installed on each computer.  All the networked computers can read and write in each other’s shared folders (subject to the security considerations discussed in the next section).

There is a way to run TIP on a central server and access it from individual PCs (or even Macintoshes) using Windows Remote Desktop. Ask the TIP support team for instructions if this is what you want to set up. Also ask whether your TIP license covers this type of operation.