LM_NET: Library Media Networking
Thanks to all the netters who sent information regarding CD-ROM towers
and networking CD-ROM drives. Below is a hit for those of you who
asked that I post it.
*********************************************************************************
There is a lot of information on CD towers in the LM-Net archives.
Please take advantage of that.
* Ty Winter *
* Network Analyst *
* ITS -- Information Technology Support *
* Louisiana State University *
* *
* twinter@unix1.sncc.lsu.edu *
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Check into Meridian Data Inc. They are getting excellent reviews. I have
an 8 bay tower networked on Novell 3.12.
Clete Schirra schirrac@icarus.lis.pitt.edu
South Park High School Media Center schirra@calvin.cc.duq.edu
2178 Ridge Road (412) 655-0613 voice
Library PA 15129 (412) 655-2952 fax
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From: morhills@planet.net
Dear Mary, I have a Novell network and I use a Meridian Tower to share CDROM
resources.I really like it because it is easy to use.The model I have has 7
slots. Avoid ProCom. I also have their tower and it is a nightmare! Kathryn
Valvano, Morris Hills HS, Rockaway, NJ.
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People get the idea that a tower is IT. You get the same results
with a stack of singles, and you can sometimes use the singles
in other ways, for programs that won't network, for example.
Singles are usually MUCH cheaper, giving you $$ for programs.
Get some singles. Stack them. Use Cd-NET by Meridian or Cd-Connect
by CBIS to put them on your network. (If you aren't networked,
you would NEVER want a tower: one kid at a time).
Oila, the same results for less money.
We have some Todd towers, but we have stacks of singles that do the
same for less.
Dana Pope
popeda@heidelberg-emh2.army.mil
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Hello, Just for your info, CD Towers hold 7 drives - that's the most you
can put on one SCSI port. You can add 7 or 14 (or multiples of 7).
Elisa
--
Elisa Baker, Librarian
Ursuline High School
90 Ursuline Road
Santa Rosa, CA 95403
e-mail: elisa@sonic.net
Fax: 707-542-0131
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I have a stack of 7 external cd-rom players which are connected to a
server and coordinated by CBIS software which allows several to us a
cd-rom simultaneously. This was all assembled for me by our local IBM
rep. and it has worked very well. Prices are constantly fluctuating. Mine
are connected to two 386's ( but I would get a 486 now) and a printer. I
have an internal cd-rom player, extra memory and "sound blasters" on one
work station so I can play multi-media cd-roms. They don't network well.
Lynn McCree, Librarian
Martin Junior High
Austin, Texas
Lmcc@tenet.edu
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Hi! We have a Meridian Tower which holds 14 CD's. It's great, no
problems and good support for questions. Hope this helps. Barb
Barb Stover Voice: 303-972-0763,x571
Chatfield Senior High School Fax: 303-933-4227
7227 South Simms St.
Littleton, CO 80127
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Dear Mary,
I am sending you a copy of a message I sent to another CD-ROM
inquiry of a few days ago; I hope you don't mind. If I can answer
any questions, please write back.
We have been running a CBIS tower on our Novell
Network for the last four years. Its performance has been flawless.
We have been using nine drives (7 internal and 2 external). If CBIS
were a healthy company, we would be adding 7 more drives to our
present tower, but it appears they are not. I would stay away from
them. Even so, if we could have gotten the drives, we would have
expanded our present tower. Our server is a 386 with a gig HDD and
8 MB of memory.
We now need to add seven more drives and have not been
able to get seven additional Toshiba external drives to use with our
CBIS tower. As a result, I have looked at other CD arrangements
in our county schools (Meridian Towers and SCSI Express) but
have decided to go with the ProComm Tower. It can be added to a
network in any location with just a network patch cable. The
software with it, DiskView, can be set up on a DOS network easily
if you have one station on the network which runs Windows, NOT
necessarily Windows on a network. I have consulted with media
specialists who are currently using them and they are extremely
pleased. I have seen them demonstrated and, if the installation of
the CDs is TWICE as difficult as it looked, it still seems easy. The
technician who installs the towers for the vendor says he has done
them in as little as fifteen minutes although he says to plan on two
hours down-time for installation of the hardware and five CD-ROM
titles.
The Ethernet-ready tower with seven drives that we have on
order is about $3,000 I believe, including installation of CD titles.
I'm at home so I can't be sure. I'm unable to get you addresses
since we work through vendors, but call a local vendor and inquire.
I was required to get three estimates and was able to find three
vendors who carried the tower with only four phone calls. They are
apparently getting quite popular. They are also still fairly readily
available, I understand. We were told that we should have the
tower within three weeks of the receipt of our purchase order.
Good luck,
Mary Ellen
_
Mary Ellen Kubis (mkubis@mindspring.com)
Library Media Specialist
Sprayberry High School
2525 Sandy Plains Road
Marietta, GA 30066
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From: Phyllis Mitchell <pmitchel@westga.edu>
Netters:
There seem to be many requests for info concerning CD-ROM towers. I
would highly recommend the Logicraft Company at 1-800-678-1692; ask for
Dianna Pope. We have a total of 70 CD drives networked to 1,400
computers in our 3-school school system. They use "Fast CD" software and
we are very pleased with this company. Phyllis Mitchell, Carrollton
High, Carrollton, Gerogia
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From: BASONEDS@UCBEH.SAN.UC.EDU
We have a 7unit CD-ROM tower by Meridian using Cd-Net software and it works
great. We have Novell and Unison running as well.
Darlene Basone
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Name: Mary Beckelhimer
Winfield High School librarian
(304)586-3601
E-mail: mbeckelh@access.k12.wv.us (Mary Beckelhimer)
Date: 02/09/96
Time: 11:30:11
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