HIT: SIRS Researcher of Renaissance on NT

[Marcia Camp <marcam@WCS.MEC.EDU>]

Thank you to all who have responded.  To date, nothing sounds exactly
like the problem we're having, but it does seem that many of you are
having difficulties with this software.  As of now, we have SIRS
Researcher running on most (but not all) computers in the library and
lab.  We have not gotten Renaissance to run at all.  Our network
administrator did a full install of both CDs to our server's hard
drive.  The difficulty was/is getting access from networked computers.
Thanks again for all your help.
Marcia
__________________________________________________________________

I have a feeling we have the same problem.  We're running Researcher on
Windows 95 NT network.  Since we don't have our library home page up
yet,
we've put a SIRS icon on the desktop of every computer, so kids just
click
and go on-line.  Last week when we tried to add icons to some new
computers, we received an error message indicating that we had exceeded
our
licensing agreement, and that we were only supposed to have 245 IP
addresses.  While it is true that the range of IP addresses we provided
SIRS includes only 245 numbers, these do not relate one-to-one to the
computers we have on campus.  We only have 245 addresses for going
outside
the firewall, and these are dynamic.  I refrained from calling SIRS
while
Georges was an issue, but called them yesterday, and they still haven't
returned the call.

I just called SIRS again--got a nice man at online support named Larry.
Apparently if no one does the right tweak when they initially set you
up,
the system defaults for 15 simultaneous users, no matter how many you're

supposed to have.  When we tried to add an icon, we apparently had 15
users
online, so got the error message.  He had it fixed in 5 minutes.  Hope
your
resolution is as easy.

We occassionally have difficulty with access, but for the most part we
are able to fix it.  I am curious to see what others suggest.  I have
always assumed that our difficulty was because of the way our building
is networked.  When it doesn't work, we turn off the computers and begin

again. (Works sometimes, sometimes doesn't).

We are running SIRS Researcher on an NT server but not on NT
workstations.  All our workstations are WIN95.  We are not having any
problems.

We have had the same problem.  We had three computers registered for
SIRS
and we can only get it on one of the computers and sometimes not at all.

We tried and tried to run SIRS Researcher and SIRS Government Reporter
on
our Windows 95 network with marginal success.  They were both riddled
with
a myriad of little problems that made working with them very irritating
and
frustrating.  Our stories sound similar: SIRS folks told us that we did
everything correctly, but the problems never disappeared. I finally gave
up
and went to EBSCO online (our county district got a subscription), and
we
are MUCH happier.  Sorry I don't have better news.

Our tech people tell me that it's not possible to run the CD program on
NT.  (We would prefer to use it instead of accessing via the Internet.)
They say that it's really a dos program...I don't know what the answer
is,
but they tell me they've tried everything.

Marcia, we had trouble getting a Fall 1998 version of Researcher to run
on
our network. Finally technical service suggested that we had a bad CD
and
just yesterday sent us a new disk. Our computer person installed it last

night and it is working well. We (he) had no problems with Renaissance
though, and he was able to install the Spring version of Researcher. I'm

sorry I can't give you more information than this; all the installation
takes place in the wee hours of the night.
____________________________________________________________________
Marcia Camilleri Camp
Librarian
Whitinsville Christian School
Whitinsville, MA  01588
marcam@wcs.mec.edu

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