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5 Information needed to set up IP-address recognition access to FirstSearch

Complete the steps described below to gather the information needed to set up IP-address recognition.

If you have questions about gathering the information, contact your OCLC regional service provider or OCLC.

Discuss potential caching problems with your library's system administrator

Ask your system administrator if your firewall or proxy server will cache documents requested from FirstSearch because caching of interactive pages may cause problems. Every FirstSearch screen sent to a user contains information identifying the specific FirstSearch session. If a firewall or proxy server supplies a FirstSearch screen cached from an earlier session, the user could click a link on that screen sending information from an obsolete session to FirstSearch. This would cause FirstSearch to end the user's current session. To solve this problem, the system administrator might configure the firewall or proxy server not to cache pages from an oclc.org address.

Identify the IP addresses that are permitted to access your FirstSearch account or accounts

Work with your system administrator

Work with your system administrator to identify all the IP addresses shown on HTTP connections from your network that should have access to your FirstSearch account or accounts. An IP address (for example, 132.174.95.5) identifies a computer or other machine on the Internet.

Proxy servers

If your institution has a proxy server, it may translate IP addresses used only within your institution's network into addresses used on the Internet. You must list only addresses used on the Internet when you set up IP-address recognition. If you include addresses used only within your network, IP-address recognition access will not work correctly.

The following addresses are never used on the Internet and should not be included in your list of IP addresses for IP-address recognition:

  • 10.*.*.*
  • 127.*.*.*
  • 172.16.*.* through 172.32.*.*
  • 192.168.*.*

Formatting rules for IP addresses

Use the following formatting rules for IP addresses when you set up IP-address recognition.

  • The first two parts of each IP address are required (for example, 132.174).
  • Other parts of an address may be a single number, a range of numbers, or an asterisk (*) wild-card character.

The following examples show how IP addresses may be listed:

  • 132.174.95.5
  • 132.174.95.5-60
  • 132.174.95-98.*
  • 132.174.95.*
  • 132.174.*.*

Identify the authorization number for each of your FirstSearch accounts

Be sure that you have the authorization number for each FirstSearch account that you want your users to access through IP-address recognition. You receive the 9-digit FirstSearch authorization number for an account when the account begins. If you need assistance, contact the FirstSearch administrator at your library or your OCLC regional service provider.

Decide which authorization number will be your default authorization for IP-address recognition

You must choose the authorization to use as your default authorization for IP-address recognition. It is the authorization that FirstSearch uses when no authorization is included in the IP-address recognition URL in a link on your library's web pages.

One FirstSearch account

If you have one FirstSearch account, its authorization is your default authorization.

Two or more FirstSearch accounts

If you have two or more FirstSearch accounts, you must choose one of their authorizations as your default authorization.

The other authorizations will be additional authorizations for IP-address recognition. To use an additional authorization, you must include it in the IP-address recognition URL in a link on your library's web pages.

Guidelines

The following guidelines help you choose your default authorization:

  • Many libraries choose the authorization for the account that will have the most IP-address recognition links.
  • You must choose an authorization that belongs to the same FirstSearch institution, consortium, or subgroup as each of the additional authorizations.
  • Most libraries have only one default authorization. However, note the following if your library needs more than one default authorization:
    • No IP address can be listed with more than one default authorization.
    • An authorization can be listed as an additional authorization with more than one default authorization.

Examples

The following examples illustrate choosing a default authorization:

Example 1: Library A has two FirstSearch authorizations.

  • The first is its authorization that is part of a FirstSearch consortium that provides access to several FirstSearch databases.
  • The second is the authorization for its individual FirstSearch account (not part of a consortium) that provides access to a few databases not included in the consortium.

Because both authorizations belong to the same institution, Library A may choose either as the default. It chooses the first because it will have the most IP-address recognition links.

Example 2: Library B has three FirstSearch authorizations.

  • The first is its authorization that is part of a FirstSearch consortium that provides access to a few popular FirstSearch databases.
  • The second is the authorization for its individual FirstSearch account (not part of a consortium) that provides access to several databases not included in the consortium.
  • The third is an authorization shared by all members of the consortium; it does not belong to Library B.

Library B must choose the first authorization, which belongs to the same institution as the second authorization and the same consortium as the third. Library B may not choose the second or third authorization because they do not belong to the same institution or consortium.

Choose a method for setting up IP-address recognition access to FirstSearch

For information about choosing a method, see Methods for setting up or changing IP-address recognition access to FirstSearch.