- An Overview
- Burn Job Management
- Getting Ready to Burn
- Burning Across the Network
- Other Features to Explore
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Getting Ready to Burn
For this article, I assume you are running either Windows XP or Windows 2000. NeroNET can work with other Windows versions, with slight changes to the procedure outlined in this article. If you are using a version of Windows other than XP or 2000, I suggest reading through NeroNET's product documentation to learn more about recording over a network using the Windows versions.
You must install a full version of Nero Burning ROM on the client machines with which you want to access a recorder on another machine. If you have an OEM version of Nero, you need to uninstall it, purchase a full version of the software, and install it in place of the OEM version. You can get a trial edition of the full, retail version of Nero Burning ROM good for 30 days at http://www.nero.com. At the time of this writing, Nero Burning ROM was in version 6.6.0.8.
Use of NeroNET requires that you be running a full version of Nero Burning ROM (at least version 5.5) on each client for which you want to share a recording device that physically resides on another machine. If you are looking to burn DVD+R/+RW/-R/-RW/-RAM media, you need to be running Nero Burning ROM version 6.3.1.6 or higher. As stated earlier, the NeroNET client component comes innately embedded within Nero Burning ROM's full retail versions.
Luckily, the NeroNET server component you need will not cost you anything unless you plan to have more than three users share your DVD/CD recorder. That's right, the NeroNET server is "free of charge" for three users. At the time of this writing, NeroNET was in version 1.2. It can be downloaded from Nero.com at http://ww2.nero.com/us/neronet-prog.html. NeroNET runs on the server without needing Nero Burning ROM.
Hardware Considerations
As stated earlier, NeroNET copies an image file from the client to the server of the CD/DVD you want to burn. Accordingly, you need to make sure that you have enough space on the NeroNET server to handle the recording job. By default, during the recording process, NeroNET copies an image file to the C:\Program Files\Ahead\NeroNET\Root\Image directory. You can change this temporary storage area if you'd like by modifying the server's properties.
Ahead Software also strongly advises that you share only CD/DVD recorder devices protected against buffer underrun. Most modern optical CD and DVD recorders selling today have some sort of buffer underrun technology.
Your client and server machines must reside in the same intranet. Ahead Software AG suggests that you have at least a 100Mbps network.
Now that we have covered the hardware aspect of things, let's move on to the software side.
The Server Side
On the server side, as mentioned before, you need to install NeroNET, which can be obtained for free from the Nero.com website.
The install procedure for NeroNET is pretty straightforward. to start, simply launch the installation wizard (see Figure 1).
)
Figure 1 Launching the NeroNET Installation Wizard.
Accept the license agreement and provide your username and company information. After you do this, you will receive a message telling you that the NeroNET service will be started on your server (see Figure 2).
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Figure 2 Notification of the NeroNET service being started.
When installation is complete, you will be told that to access NeroNET Server via its browser interface, you must use the following information (see Figure 3):
Username: Administrator Password: neronet
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Figure 3 Important Information dialog box about the NeroNET server install.
You should notice a new icon in your Notification Area for the NeroNET service (see Figure 4). You can use this for quick access to some of the NeroNET server's options.
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Figure 4 The NeroNET tray icon.
At this point, you need to log in to the NeroNET server web interface. Use the credentials just mentioned. (You should change the Administrator password for security purposes.) NeroNET runs a web server that listens at port 80 by default. You can access the web interface with your browser by opening the URL http://localhost:80 or http://xxx.xxx.xx.xx:80, where xxx.xxx.xx.xx is the IP address of your server workstation (see Figure 5). You should see NeroNET's web interface, via which you can control the NeroNET server.
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Figure 5 The Web interface of NeroNET lets you control the NeroNET server.
Adding Users
To burn across your network, you need to be a user authorized by your NeroNET server. To do this, you have to add a user that NeroNET recognizes. To do this, click on the User Management section to create a user. You will see the User Management page, where you can add users (see Figure 6).
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Figure 6 NeroNET's User Management section.
Click on the Add User button to add a user. Then provide a username, password, and associated real name of a user you would like to create (see Figure 7). I created a username of bicky with a password of passw0rd.
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Figure 7 Creating a user and granting rights.
When creating a user, you can grant the user server administration rights and queue administration rights. Only users granted server administration rights are allowed to configure the recorder device that physically resides on the server machine. By default, users are allowed to administer their own jobs that they send for recording. However, a user who has been granted queue administrator rights can manage his own jobs as well as other users' jobs.
By default, NeroNET allows three workstations to record CDs/DVDs using NeroNET. If you need to have more machines share your recording device, you can buy a more gracious license from Ahead Software AG.
The Client Side
You are now ready configure your client side to burn a CD/DVD across your network. To do this, you set up Nero Burning ROM with your NeroNET server. Fire up Nero Burning ROM on your client and, from the File menu, choose Preferences. From the subsequent Preferences window, choose the Expert Features tab. Check the Enable NeroNET Support option and then click the NeroNET button (see Figure 8).
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Figure 8 Enabling NeroNET support on your client machine.
In the subsequent window, you need to add a NeroNET account. Click the Create button (see Figure 9).
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Figure 9 Creating a NeroNET account.
At this point, you are presented with a Create Account window, where you need to enter the following:
|
Field Name |
Example Value |
|
Account name |
IntranetBurner |
|
Server |
192.168.46.129 |
|
Port |
80 |
|
Username |
bicky |
|
Password |
passw0rd |
For the Server value, provide the IP address of the server you configured earlier (the machine that houses the recording device you are trying to share). By default, NeroNET uses a port of 80 (a configurable value). You also need to provide the username and password of the account you created earlier. (See Figure 10.)
)
Figure 10 Providing the details of your account.
If all has gone well, you should receive a screen showing your NeroNET account being created (see Figure 11). You have successfully linked your client and the NeroNET server.
)
Figure 11 Successful account creation.
Click the Close button of this window and then the Apply and OK buttons on the underlying Preferences window. You are ready to start burning across your network.