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Commander Troubleshooting Notes

Following are troubleshooting notes that may be helpful with difficulties connecting to the host server.

If you have connected but things don't appear to be working correctly, perhaps there is a break in the Internet between you and the server. You can always test the speediness of your connection by using the "Transfer Rate" button under the OPTIONS /CHECK SERVER CONNECTIONS menu of the Commander client. If you get a reading above 100 percent, then you are experiencing a slow connection. Contact your campus Network department and let them know you cannot reach the beilstein server at the address: beilstein.library.wisc.edu. They should be able to ping, or do traceroutes to determine where the break is.

Windows and Mac

1. Access is handled through IP control. Possibly your workstation's IP number is not in the security table. You can check your IP number at the following commercial site: http://ipchicken.com .Write down your IP and contact your local Beilstein contact person. Keep in mind that only .edu domains are allowed access. If you are using a private Internet Service Provider such as AOL, you will not get in. Home users must be dialed into their local campus dial or VPN (Virtual Private Network) server.

2. Authentication is via login, password and group name. The login and password are case sensitive. To check your group name, go to the Commander OPTIONS menu, choose CHANGE THE GROUP NAME menu item. Check for typos. The CLIENT NAME option is user-defined and the server does not care what you enter. Contact your campus Beilstein contact person to verify the correct login/password/group name for your campus.

Mac only

1. Commander for Mac is a classic program and therefore cannot be run on the latest Mac OS nor Intel cpu based Macs. Commander must be installed and run from the classic environment. Be sure all extensions are in place. The Beilstein Commander folder or program cannot be moved from the location the where the installer placed it. It is not Mac-friendly in that way.

2. Extensions may be problematic. Copy any XFIRE extensions in the OS X extensions folder to the OS 9 extensions folder.

3. Be sure the Crosslink application default memory size is set to at least 2500K.

Information for Network administrators:

No two workstations can share the same station id. If you clone workstations, you will need to delete the station id number from the XDK.ini file located in the users directory of the master clone. When cloned workstations connect for the first time, they will be passed a station id.

Multiple users of one workstation using Commander version 7

With Commander 7 by default, the profile exists under each user's documents folder. For example at: C:\Documents and Settings\login_name\My Documents\MDL\Commander\prf . For version 7.1, the path is slighly different: C:\Documents and Settings\login_name\My Documents\Elsevier\Commander\prf

However, this causes a problem where multiple users share the workstation. With the default installation of CrossFire Commander 7, each user (having separate Windows login ID) must create one's own profile and login to the CrossFire database. However, there is a workaround to avoid this.

Steps to create the shared preference file:

  1. Login to the machine with the Administrator privilege.
  2. Start CrossFire Commander 7.
  3. Save the login password when you login to CrossFire Commander.
  4. When you exit Commander, place a check on
    "Automatically connect to the current server for the next session" and click Yes.
  5. Copy the default.prf (or whatever the profile you have) from the administrator's personal path at
    C:\Documents and Settings\login_name\My Documents\MDL\Commander\prf\ to the CrossFire Commander installation directory at C:\Program Files\MDL CrossFire Commander 7.0\group\prf\ . ( Note the path is slightly different for version 7.1. ) You can set the preference file as Read-Only if you would like.
  6. Other users can now login to the machine and access CrossFire databases from the Commander 7, without entering a new password nor recreating the preference file.
Back to the UW-Madison Beilstein client distribution page.

David Waugh
University of Wisconsin-Madison
General Library System / Library Technology Group

This page last modified 21 Feb. 2008