[OPLINTECH] Roadrunner

[Don Yarman]

Jay Barkey wrote:

> We have tried a free Roadrunner at one of our small branch 
> libraries (one room of a community building).  We are 
> considering using Roadrunner at other locations.  Any 
> experiences, problems, etc you have encountered would be 
> greatly appreciated.  Comments related to the free service 
> versus a purchased business account are also desired.

If Road Runner can supply you with a guaranteed,
static IP address, then OPLIN can make sure that it
is registered with the database content providers.
Otherwise, you would have to use Remote Access to
get to OPLIN resources.  (Or use a proxy server,
as Susan Kendall seems to be thinking of doing).

I'm a Road Runner user at home.  Occasionally my
service has been very slow, because bandwidth is 
shared in my neighborhood.  I would want to know that
I had sufficient bandwidth to run the new generation 
circulation systems (along with their schmancy Web
catalogs), and not be disrupted when a patron tries
to watch a movie trailer on-line.  (Few things are
more annoying than being able to type faster than
your circ system can respond, right?)

     Your most humble and obedient servant,

                          Don Yarman
                          OPLIN Library Services Manager
                          yarmando@oplin.org