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Can I caution you against upgrading the operating system used by the
confocal software?

It is possible that the computer is too slow / low on memory and hard disk
to be entirely happy with the upgrade. You have a number of alternative
routes.

Firstly, if your computer is powerful enough you could make a dual boot
system with the network only enabled on the XP configuration (this is a
good way of testing whether the computer is up to the job without making
the confocal unusable). Secondly, you could add a firewall (either hardware
or software) which could help secure your network. Thirdly, you could
remove TCP/IP networking and use a none-routable protocol like
NETBIOS/NetBeui and only activate it when moving files.

Possibly my favoured option would be to install a fast backup device such
as a removable disk drive (either flash, real hard disk, or a DVD/CD
writer). If your computer does have and support USB (i.e. it is Windows 98
or higher) I would recommend using it.

Greetings,
Christof

On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 10:37:32 +0100, James Chalcroft <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>Search the CONFOCAL archive at
>http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>
>We have a problem here which I suspect already affects many other
>confocal installations and their ability to remain incorporated in
>institutional networks.
>Old commercial systems were developed to work with early versions of MS
>Windows and not designed to be ported later to more secure operating
>systems such as Windows XP. These old systems are viewed here with a
>jaundiced eye by our computer managers since they are regarded as
>security risks.
>Nevertheless, our old confocal systems are still performing well
>therefore we would like to keep them operational as long as possible.
>For these reasons I recently had a conversation with our Leica service
>representative re the possibility of computer operating system upgrades
>for our TCS_4D and TCS_NT confocal systems.
>He made the following points:
>1) No upgrade of OS is directly available from Leica, the reason being
>that no drivers have been developed for later Operating Systems
>2) It is not known whether any user has successfully upgraded a system
>to Win2000 or Win XP. In any case, such a modification could not be
>guaranteed to work universally in other labs and it would certainly not
>be supported by the manufacturer if difficulties arise.
>3) In the case of severance of these computers from the network, it is
>still possible to add CD-writers and/or add USB ports for data exchange
>via flash cards, USB hard drives etc.
>After learning all this (and before we make a move) I would like to ask
>the list whether others have successfully made computer security
>upgrades (by any method) and could offer advice on possibilities and
>pitfalls.
>TIA
>
>Jim