Suggestions Computer to Computer

[burgmurk]

Back in the late 90s, early 2000s, a seperate RIP was absolutely needed. Those things could take an hour or more to get a large file to the printer, and the CPU would be getting hammered all of that time making it unusable for any other tasks.
A similar job these days might take a few minutes, and the pc is still completely fine running illustrator or whatever at the same time.
I've worked in a couple of smaller shops in the last ten years where i've just had one production machine to design, rip, cut vinyl and do internet stuff from, and have never had an issue.
IMHO If you're just a small team or solo operation, it's overkill
.

 

[FireSprint.com]

I skimmed the comments, so sorry if this has been repeated. One thing we have done is to put 2 Network Cards (2 LAN Ports) in one computer, and a single network card in the Printer Driver (This might also be your RIP depending on how it's all set up).

Computer 1 (2 Network Cards, Design Machine, Connection to the internet)

• One Network card goes to your local network or out to the internet
• The other network card can use a crossover cable (Or a standard Cat6 Ethernet Patch Cable) and connect directly into the single network card of your printer driver machine. You can also use a cheap switch, but that's just another point of failure and speed degradation.

Computer 2 (Printer Driver, No connection to the internet, specifically set up to run the printer.)

• This box won't have internet unless you work some magic on the first computer.
• Set up a shared folder here you can send files to for printing.
• You will only be able to access it from Computer 1, and therefore it will stay "Cleaner" with no automatic updates or internet traffic.

 

[player]

If your computers are networked you can control one remotely with another using Team Viewer.