A laboratory computer network is set forth. The laboratory computer network comprises a plurality of laboratory instrument workstations connected to respective laboratory instruments. Each laboratory instrument workstation is adapted to provide video screen data indicative of the operational status of the respective laboratory instrument. A transmission medium is provided to transmit video screen data from each of the plurality of laboratory instrument workstations. A central server is also provided. The central server is adapted to receive the video screen data from the transmission media. The central server monitors one or more screen sections of the video screen data received from each of the plurality of laboratory instrument workstations and provides an alert in response to a given visual state of the monitored screen sections of each laboratory instrument workstation.