Troubleshooting

Below are some suggested areas to check if you are having issues connecting to your database vendors.

Proxy rewrite method is not working; error message indicates web site not found, cannot display this page, or hostname not resolving:

When you create a wildcard entry for your library's DNS make sure you use the proper IP address of your Innovative server, not an alias. Use only the IP address. For example, your DNS wildcard entry should look like this:

*.web.library.edu IN A 123.456.78

If you have changed the IP address originally set up for your server, you must advise Innovative.

When you create the URL for a database entry on your Web page, make sure that the URL is the same as the entry for the database in the Forward Table, and the exact port number is entered if it is not 80.

Database vendor connections are very slow, or error messages indicates that the IP address is not valid and a login is required:

Check that the vendor IP address or domain name in the Web Access Management table is correct.

Many vendors have variations in the domain name IP address. To overcome this, use the asterisk wildcard in the domain name:

e.g. *.oclc.org

An error message indicates that the server won't act as a proxy, or you are not authorized to view a page:

The patron may be not allowed to access a database because his or her Ptype is not included in entry in the Web Access Management table or the Forward Table. Re-check these two tables for inconsistencies.

In addition to the above solutions, some possible reasons why you cannot connect to database vendors set up in the Forward Table, or do not see a patron verification screen, are as follows:

  1. Check that the vendor IP address in the Forward Table is correct. It should contain only the vendor's server IP address or domain name, e.g. www.eb.org. Do not include subdirectories or login information after the server IP address. Add those details to the database vendor HTML link on your Web OPAC.
  2. If you used the asterisk wildcard in a vendor's IP address make sure that it acts only as a wildcard to replace the server part of the IP address, e.g. www.oclc.org is replaced by *.oclc.org. Do not add an extra element into the IP address.
  3. If you have added a Database Identifier (DB ID) for a specific database from a vendor, you must also make an entry for the vendor without a DB ID. The general vendor entry must be below specifc database entries in the table. Add the same DB ID to the HTML link for the database vendor on your Web OPAC.
  4. Remove the Database Identifier (DB ID) if you do not need it. This optional value is used only if you want to provide separate access to a specific database, or need usage statistics by database.
  5. Make sure that the vendor has the IP address of your Millennium catalog server.
  6. If you made changes to entries in the table, also refresh the proxy configuration file by closing and reopening your Web browser.