title: Architecture & Libraries To Use Feedback
body: <p>I'm a frontend developer, fairly new to backend. I have a project I'm working on and would like feedback on how to best architect it and what libraries to use so I dont build something that ends up not working.</p>
  
  <p>My knowledge: Javascript (front end). Have been learning NodeJS and a small amount of python. Would like to build in nodeJS since thats my main experience.</p>
  
  <p>My project: I have a database with about 200 rows. I have 5 computers. I want each computer to be given a row from the database, perform a function (varies how long it takes between 2-10minutes), then move on to another row which is available.</p>
  
  <p>(The reason for the 5 computers is each task needs to have a unique location. The computers are in different locations and on a different network)</p>
  
  <p>Solution I'm thinking of doing: 1 of the computers is the main server. It will send the row # to each of the other 4 computers. It will wait to recieve a message from the assigned computer telling it the task was completed. Then it will assign it the next row on the list. ie:</p>
  
  <p>Server to Computer 1: do row 1<br>
  Server to Computer 2: do row 2<br>
  Server to Computer 3: do row 3<br>
  Server to Computer 4: do row 4<br>
  Computer 2 to Server: "done".<br>
  Server to computer 2: do row 5<br>
  Computer 4 to Server: "done".<br>
  Server to computer 4: do row 6<br>
  Computer 1 to Server: "done".<br>
  Server to computer 1: do row 7  </p>
  
  <p>etc</p>
  
  <p>My questions:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Is this the best way to architect this or is there a better way?</li>
  <li>How do I connect all the clients to the server since they're on different networks?</li>
  <li>What libraries do I need to accomplish all this?</li>
  </ul>