Although our software will run on any computer from Windows 98 onward, we strongly recommend the use of Windows XP Professional machines.  Windows 98 has many faults (especially printer/spooler anomalies) and should not be used.

Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7

In 2007 Microsoft announced a new version of their Windows Operating System - Windows Vista and now soon to be superseded by Windows 7.  Our advice at this time is still to use Windows XP Professional if you can.  The latter has not been discontinued and is freely available from Dell and others.

Pacts' product range does run very well under Vista, with the latter acting in either server or workstation mode.  Vista computers need a minimum of 2048 Mbytes of Ram.  There are a few networking issues which we hope will be resolved by the release of Windows 7.  However, we won't hold our breath - Microsoft seem incapable of doing basic office networking for peer-to-peer configurations.

Computer Hardware

Pacts software is easy on computer resources.  A machine with hardware based on the Intel Celeron processor (or better) at 2GHz speed or (better) is ample.  2048 Mbytes of Ram is a minimum.  Each sale occupies about 20 Mbytes of hard disc space, so a 80Gb hard disk could hold some 3000+ sales (allowing room for system software).

Backing up Critical Data

Backup of sales and historical data is of critical importance.  Many customers simply do not realise that computer hard drives can fail with catastrophic consequences.  Or an office could be burgled or burnt down leaving you with no auction data.  You must have a backup device and a backup/recovery policy to protect you from data loss.  You should know how to restore critical data should the need ever arise.

Preferred backup devices would be a CD-Writer or an external hard drive.  With compression, one standard CD-Rom (700 Mb) will hold 7000Mb or 350 sales.  Each CD costs about ten pence.  Do not re-use CD's - you might not be able to restore their data when necessary.  Once you have created a new backup CD, make sure the correct data is actually stored on it.

A re-useable backup device is a "Pen-Drive" - these are available with 8Gbytes of storage for under £30.  They plug into a spare USB port and are seen by Windows as an external hard disc.

Backup devices must not operate on an "incremental file" basis - i.e. backing up the files that have changed.  If you ever need to restore, you will be forced to restore each of what could be a long list of increments - any glitch along the way and your backup is lost.  You must, therefore, backup your entire \pactsdata or \stockdata folders each and every working day.  This process should not take more than a few minutes.

Networking

Pacts software will run on a network of Windows computers arranged in a simple Peer-to-Peer configuration or in a Client/Server format.  Windows XP Pro (with Service Patch 2 or later) is the preferred Operating System until Windows 7 is proven.

Networks must be hard-wired.  Networks should operate at 100Mbps minimum.  Network hardware should include a 100Mbps Switch - a 10/100Mbps Hub will not provide the best network performance.  Switches are available for about £90.

Wireless networking must not be used with our auction management software.  Wireless networks will seriously compromise the overall system reliability and will invalidate our warranty.

Our software must always be run in a true Client/Server format.  That is, workstations must run their own version of our software from their local disc drives.

In a mixed network, a Windows XP Pro or a Windows 2003 Server machine must act as the auction server.  Windows NT Server, Windows 2000 or Windows 95/98 computers should not be used.

Only on a two computer network should the nominated auction server computer be also used to enter auction data.  On networks of three machines or more, in a Peer-to-Peer arrangement, one machine must be a dedicated auction server.

Auction Server Computer

The auction server computer must have its hard disc write-behind cache facility disabled.  (Local Disc C, Properties, Hardware, Disc Drive Properties, Policies, Optimise for Quick Removal or Disable Cache).  The auction server computer hard drive must be set up with \pactsdata and \stockdata and \illustrations folders having read/write shared access across the network.

File and Printer sharing must be enabled.  (My Network Places, Setup Small Office Network Wizard).

Workstation Computers

All auction workstation computers must have their hard disc write-behind cache facility disabled.  (Local Disc C, Properties, Hardware, Disc Drive Properties, Policies, Optimise for Quick Removal or Disable Cache).

Pacts workstation computers communicate with the auction server computer via the Mapped Network Drives feature of Windows. 

File and Printer sharing must be enabled.  (My Network Places, Setup Small Office Network Wizard).

Pacts software operates with any kind of VGA display (CRT or TFT) and should be set to 1024 x 768 resolution, 32 bit colour and large fonts.  (Control Panel, Display, Settings, Advanced, Large Fonts at 120%).

Pacts monitors the transactions from each computer on the network.  Each computer on the network must be given a machine name (e.g. \\admin) of a maximum of eight alphanumeric characters.  Non-printing characters, underscores, hyphens, punctuation characters etc. are not permissible in machine names.

Printers

Many customers still want to print A3 or a combination of A3 and A4 paper sizes.  Pacts software always prints to the current Windows default printer.  It is designed to work with any printer installed on a Microsoft Windows network, but those manufactured by Brother, Hewlett Packard (HP) and Oki are recommended.  Our current printer suggestions are:

HP5200 A3/A4 (35 pages per minute) monochrome laser (about £980) if you want to print the auctioneers sale book or financial summaries as A3.  This machine will print A3 or A4 pages at high speed.

or

Oki C810 A3/A4 (Prints A4 pages at 30 pages per minute in colour, 32 pages per minute in monochrome) colour laser (about £980) if you want to print the auctioneers sale book or financial summaries as A3.  This machine will print A3 pages at 16 pages per minute in colour and 17 pages per minute in monochrome.

*HP Officejet 7000 A3/A4 colour inkjet (about £200) if you want to print the auctioneers sale book or financial summaries as A3.  However, this printer is not really fast enough for buyer invoices or vendor accounts.

or

Brother MFC-6890CDW A3/A4 (Prints A4 pages at 28 pages per minute in colour, 35 pages per minute in monochrome) colour inkjet (about £260) if you want to print the auctioneers sale book or financial summaries as A3.  However, this printer is not really fast enough for buyer invoices or vendor accounts. 

This is a multi-function unit which can print/fax/copy/scan both A3 and A4.

*Oki B430d A4 (28 pages per minute - first page out 5.5 seconds) monochrome laser with automatic duplex printing (about £150) which will print all Pacts forms as A4.  (Printer does automatic A3 to A4 reduction).  Very low running costs.

or

Oki B410d A4 (28 pages per minute - first page out 5.5 seconds) monochrome laser with automatic duplex printing (about £120) which will print all Pacts forms as A4.  (Printer does automatic A3 to A4 reduction).  Very low running costs.

or

Brother HL-2170W A4 (up to 22 pages per minute - first page out less than 10 seconds) monochrome laser (about £125) which will print all Pacts forms as A4.  (Printer does automatic A3 to A4 reduction). Very low running costs.

*Oki C3450 A4 (16 pages per minute colour + 20 pages/minute monochrome - first page out 12 seconds) colour laser (about £240) which will print all Pacts forms as A4. (Printer does automatic A3 to A4 reduction).  Very low running costs in monochrome - about one penny per page.  Seven pence per page in colour.

Recommendations

If you want to retain an A3 sale book, the two printers marked  * and  *  together make an unbeatable combination.

If you want an all A4 but monochrome solution, the  * Oki is the best.

If you want an all A4 solution with colour for vendor/buyer forms and monochrome for all internal documents, then the  * Oki is the best.

Prices quoted exclude VAT.

Revised December 2009