What to do when my scoring system wont let my network touch the Internet
posted in Autoscoring, BLS-2007 |Most, if not all autoscoring manufacturers prohibit the connection of their scoring system network to the Internet. Why, you may ask, are they that picky?
Well… really it’s a simple reason. Viruses. Can you really blame the manufacturers? Do you really expect them to fix the problems (on their dime, not yours) because you or an employee checked their personal email at the center and clicked on a file attachment called “Ha Ha Ha”?
For the most part, there is little reason why a scoring system network needs to have access to the Internet. However, there are some things beneficial to having the Internet, such as remote technical support or uploading league standings to LeagueSecretary.com (for free and sanctioned/unsanctioned leagues) or Bowl.com. Also getting program updates is handy as well.
To upload leagues, we have an alternate solution available in the form of a special licensed copy of BLS. As always, each computer a CDE product is installed on must have a unique license and serial number (and for the most part, most other programs from other companies do too). This special license can be used to install BLS on a computer that is outside of the computer scoring network, but still in the bowling center. A league is simply backed up from the scoring network version of our product and transported via USB Memory or other removable media and then restored on the Internet computer. From there… upload the league.
This does give you an advantage of having another computer with a backup of your league in case of a hardware failure.
Also, the Internet enabled computer can download updates to the CDE (or other) products and saved to USB Memory or other removable media and installed on the scoring network computer.
Some centers who are savvy enough and have invested in technology and anti-virus protection have connected their systems directly to the Internet. Should you do the same? I would strongly encourage you to contact your scoring system and find out the ins and outs of warranty and other things that could be effected by that decision. These centers understand the risk and have taken the appropriate precautions to justify paying for a support incidence related to viruses. In the mean time, this workaround generally will make the scoring manufacture happy and still allows you to connect your center to the information super highway.