[R] Running R on a Local Area Network

[Uwe Ligges]

Henri Tourneur wrote:
> A couple of months ago I downloaded R 1.6.0's binary for Windows, which I have 
> since been using without any particular problem, that is  on one machine running 
> Windows 98.
> 
> Last week I set up a local network and have since tried to use R remotely, i.e. 
> R is installed on the previous machine and nowhere else.  On the client's side, 
> the GUI opens correctly and allows me to do simple computations such as 
> x<-1:20
> y<-1:20
> plot(x,y)
> 
> So far, so good. Problem  is with packages which I don't seem to be able to 
> access on the server (locally, I repeat, this works fine)
> 
> i.e. when I try library()
> I get 
> 
> no packages found
> Warning message: 
> libraries `//ServerComputer/c/Program Files/R/rw1060/library', 
> `//SERVERCOMPUTER/C/PROGRA~1/R/RW1060/library' contain no packages in: library() 
>
> Does that ring any bell to one of you  ?  Am I trying to do something R was 
> never designed to do in the first place ?

We are running R completely from a server (all machines, both server and 
clients, are NT-based, i.e. WinNT, WinXP), and it works without any 
problems.

But you should consider the following points:

- Use a sensible network share (i.e. regularly it's not a good idea to 
share the whole drive).
- Don't use any blanks in the paths. (e.g., we have installed R at the 
following UNC path: "\\server\software\R")
- Assign a drive letter to the UNC path at the client side, e.g. with a 
startup script that includes the line:
  net use s: \\server\software
So you can create a shortcut that starts R at the following location: 
s:\R\bin\RGui.exe

Uwe Ligges