CD LAN Setup
4 messages in this thread
Jerry,
This is the LAN setup for the Library of Congress' main reading
room. PS/2 SXs are used for the public access workstations, and PS/2 DXs
are used for the servers. TODD multi-drive CD-ROM players are connected to
the servers. The TODD, by the way, is the Hitachi player which has been
installed into a multi-drive unit. Online's Optinet software, accessing
the Net Bios protocols, is used to communicate across the network.
The user interface software is, I think, Direct Access Ver. 5. It
is menu driven, and allows the user to access and query the various CD-ROM
databases on the servers. It allows the users to format a floppy diskette,
or to export records to a diskette, but prevents them from executing DOS
commands or running their own programs.
Hope this helps. If you have any more question, let me know.
Phil
Phil,
Thanks for info on the Library of Congress setup.
A couple of questions:
1. You say you use the Opti-Net software. Are you happy with it, and had
you considered others such as CD Net or SCSI Express?
2. What kind of LAN are you using, Netware? LAN Manager?
Thanks for sharing …
// Gerry
Gerry,
The January 11th issue of LAN Times magazine has a review compairing 5
major Novell NetWare CD-ROM solutions. SCSI Express was awarded the "Best
of Times". If you would like more information on SCSI Express our sales
department can be reached at 407-677-8333.
Best Regards,
Arnold Jones
Micro Design International, Inc.
Gerry,
I don't work in the Main Reading Room. I work in Cataloging
Distribution Service, developing CD-ROM products to sell outside of LC.
From what the tech support people tell me, they are satisfied with the
performance of the Optinet software. That is hearsay though. I have not
worked with it myself.
No LAN management software is used on the reading room network. The
Optinet software accesses the Net-Bios protocols directly. The LAN appears
to be another disk drive to the user workstation. This means that the
retrieval software has to be installed on each workstation. This eats up a
lot of disk real estate, but I understand that it improves response time.
Another reason why they can do without LAN management software is that it
is a dedicated LAN which only runs one application, the access program to
the CD-ROM discs. Incidentally, there are about a dozen different titles
on the CD-ROM server.
I hope this helps. Phil