I have a small network (30 users) and right now its just me who manages everything. I keep a pretty tight ship and have standards for operating systems (W2K and XP), Office, web browsing (IE) and other software used. This makes it easier to troubleshoot problems. IE is required to use a specific software product that we use. I don’t allow any others (Foxfire, Netscape, Opera, etc.) on my PCs.
Our new web designer in marketing would like to add all the various browsers to her PC. She’s going to be designing a new web site and wants to test it within all these different browsers.
Two things scare me. The first is what kind of problems are going to occur on this machine software-wise or will they all play together nicely and won’t conflice with any other programs or devices.
The second is, what kinds of security implications are there? I stay on top of keeping IE patched. What about all the others? How will I know when they need updates?
I suppose I could just say “use the others only for testing our beta site and only use IE for other web browsing on the internet.”
Or I could set up an independent machine with a dial-up connection and keep it completely off our network.
How much time am I looking to add to my day by allowing this? What about the “angst factor” I know I’ll experience?
Or am I blowing this out of proportion?
Any thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?
