Bandwidth
If you are in a location that has many other computers connected
to the Internet, you may find the speed better at some times of the
day than at other times. At times when you find the Internet to be
slow, try this link to get an idea of your Internet speed. Show it
to your the computer technician and see if he can tell you if you
are getting good bandwidth in your present configuration.
Write the results down for reference along with the time of day you
tested the speed. Try it during a busy time of day when you know
a lot of other persons are on the computers at your location.
If you speed always measures less than '1000KBps' (less than 1Mp's),
OPALS will struggle to work in peak periods of circulation activity.
Accurate site (recommended)
http://speedtest.net/
Click on the gold Star and Montreal and wait for the test to finish.
Your readings must be above 1Mp's :
Easy to read but much less accurate :
You may need to try three or four times to get an average speed result.
http://www.absolutefuturity.com/speedtest.asp
Internet Browser
We also are concerned about the speed of circulation. If you use
Internet Explorer we support version 7x and above. If you are
using Firefox as your browser, it will be faster than I.E. Get the
latest version here:
http://getfirefox.com
Content filters / Proxy servers
Your connection to the Internet may go through several 'hops' before
getting out of your location. If you have a proxy server and/or content
filter in your path, there is a possibility that settings in those
utilities could slow the dynamic transactions to your library server.
We recommend bypassing these if possible by asking your System Admin
to allow direct connections to your hosting server. Give your Admin
the URL of your library or the IP number of the server which is hosting
your OPALS catalog.
In the case of URLs ending with :
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URLs with
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Use this IP
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*.opalsinfo.net
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199.202.101.246
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*.scoolaid.net
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199.202.101.252
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*.hl.scoolaid.net
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199.202.101.244
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Latest Flash / Java drivers
In an effort to make the transactions as fast as possible, we have
programmed the circulation system in OPALS to use Adobe Flash / Shockwave.
Also some newer features will use Java. Please be sure you have the
latest of these drivers for your Circulation workstations.
Flash : http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi
Java : http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp
Workstation
Hardware
Almost any workstation will support the Internet. Yet the complexity
of the Internet has grown in recent years and only newer hardware
is able to quickly process a complex data generated display page.
We recommend a workstation that is no less than 4 years old (1.2Ghz)
for your OPAC searching and even faster for your circulation stations.
More ram is better; 512mb is minimum for a circulation station.
To view the particulars of your workstation,
- Choose the windows 'Start' button
- then 'right click' on 'My Computer' and
- select Properties.
You will see something like the picture below.
DNS Server Settings
At times a slow or poorly configured Domain Name Server can upset the
free flow of information between your workstation and the OPALS server.
We recommend setting your workstation DNS services to a known reliable
DNS. We recommend DNS servers from a company called OpenDNS (www.opendns.com).
They are enhanced for safety and have always been accurate to our needs.
Some good IP numbers are :
- Preferred DNS: 208.67.220.220
- Alternate DNS : 208.67.222.222
You may need to ask your computer system expert to set this for you,
or you may have the permissions you need. The simplest way to set a
Windows workstation's DNS is to :
Route tracing
Internet service between your workstation and the OPALS server, can
at times be compromised by poor switching or broken / slow routers.
In order to find these problems we use a tool to display the 'hops'
between your workstations and the server that is hosting your OPALS
library system. This tool will tell us where each Internet packet
is being routed and how fast each connection is along the way.
Server to Workstation
Use the following link to display the IP number of your workstation.
This number should be jotted down, and will allow us trace the route
and its speed back to your machine from our location :
http://whatismyip.com
Workstation to Server
Finally, the above route to the server from your workstation may
display different information than the route from your workstation
to the OPALS server. A "traceroute" needs to happen from
your workstation back to the OPALS server that is hosting your library.
If you cannot follow the instructions below your workstation may have
security settings that have disabled your permission. Ask your computer
technician to complete the following and mail it to us for an assessment.
How to do a traceroute from your computer :
- Go to the start button and choose RUN
- Type 3 letters - "cmd" into the box.
- A window with a DOS prompt will open.
- Type tracert
your.opals.url
E.g. mylib.scoolaid.net (do not paste in the '/bin/home' or '/'
anything else.)
- Press Enter to start the trace.
- 15 or 20 steps later it will Finish. It may say "Complete"
- It may just hang with * * * .
- Right click on the little Icon in the upper left of the window.
- Choose Edit, Then Mark
- Now Drag your cursor across the whole screen to highlight everything
- then press enter. This will copy the image into your clip board
- Paste (CTRL -V) the image into an Email and return it to dan (at)
bibliofiche.com
This will help us see what may be slowing the route to the OPALS
server.
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