Has anyone successfully used automated software in conjunction with Forex trading?

How can I integrate my home network?

• I am a forex day trader and have three computers in my home office for three independent purposes.. one for general use and development of my trading skills/trading software, one as a dedicated machine for running automated trading software on live account, and one is used solely for resource-heavy optimization of trading software. While the tasks are not dependent on one another, I need to constantly update all three with the lastest versions of my work..it is a pain. I would like there to be some integration between the three computers where each has access to the same information as the others automatically. I have little experience with such a system. What is it that I require? A server?? ...isnt a server essentially a 'computer' (motherboard/hardrive/ram)? ..can I just make one of my existing computers a 'server'? Thanks!!

• Answer:

  A server is typically a beefed-up computer, with high-end servers having multiple items for redundancy; things like twin power supplies, one fails the other keeps the server running until it can be replaced or repaired, and so on. It would similarly have multiple hard drives to store the data; again if one failed the data remains available on the other / remaining drive(s). When designing or looking into a server ideally you would need at least RAID1, RAID5 or RAID6 (in order of security of data, and also cost). This can be done in hardware (a PCI RAID controller) or in software, with the right type of file and operating system. Essentially a server that is attached to the network for the simple purpose of storing data is called a NAS - simply Network Attached Storage. If you go down the "PC hardware" route, free operating systems such as FreeNAS or OpenFiler can give you the functionality of a file server and RAID data protection. Alternatively you can by ready-to-run NAS boxes that are self enclosed units you just fire up, set some options, and away you go. QNAP are a very good example of such a device, all configured via a web interface. If you have ever configured your own router, then you'll be familiar with the concept of web-based configuration. Certainly Windows computers can share files in a NAS-like way (not just Microsoft Server editions, but their Desktop editions like XP, Vista and 7) but it's not recommended due to them being prone to viruses or needing re-installation - you may lose all your files. A PC-based or ready-to-run NAS do not run "Windows" and avoid this vulnerability. Many NAS boxes have a means to synchronise files to another NAS box (either locally or remotely) which can act as a means to backing up your files elsewhere too. "RSync" is a common method to do this.