Pesky proxies

[Cathy Cox]

We're having a rather strange problem with Electric Library, one of a 
number databases we subscribe to.  As with all of our other databases, we 
have it available to all our students and staff on-campus through IP 
authentication.  We are *supposed* to be able to allow off-site students 
access by having them go through a proxy server.

What actually seems to be happening instead is that when an off-site user 
sets up their proxy configuration as requested, then tries to enter 
Electric Library, E.L. doesn't "see" the proxy server at all.  Students 
selecting Electric Library from our menu are sent directly to E.L.'s web 
page - instead of getting the page generated by our proxy server which asks 
for their name and student I.D. #,  they pull up an E.L. page which asks 
for their "userid" and "password".  This is the same screen seen by any 
member of the general public trying to access Electric Library on an 
individual account.  Although the two pages look completely different 
(Electric Library header instead of a college header, etc.) students often 
don't realize the difference, think their computer setup is to blame, and 
call the library to find out why their access is blocked or what they did 
wrong. . .

I've called Infonautics, the vendor, and worked with them over the past 
several days.  They can't find anything on their end that would explain 
what's happening.  They have the correct IP ranges listed for our 
site.  The proxies work fine for our other database vendors, such as 
InfoTrac and Gale.  I'm stumped on this one, but then I'm no expert on the 
mechanics of proxy authentication, either.  Can anyone give me a clue as to 
what might be going on?

Catherine Cox
Electronic Resources Librarian
Mission Community College
Santa Clara, California