When is IP filtering NOT IP filtering?

[Stacy Pober]

Q: When is IP filtering NOT IP filtering?  

A: When you are using the Corporate Affiliations website.  
We just signed up for Corporate Affiliations online. I was 
careful to quiz the salesperson as to the availability of
IP filtered access.  (I would rather not have to give out 
passwords if we can avoid it.)

They assured me that they offered IP filtered access.  And 
they do...sort of.  

However, when you go to their site, even with IP filtered
access, users are confronted by a javascript popup that 
asks for their login and password. It turns out that any
password and login will do at that point as long as it is 
over 4 characters long (and it probably has some max. length
as well, but I didn't test for that.) 

So now, instead of giving out passwords, I'm going to have 
to send users to an interstitial "info page" to explain that
they do need a password or that almost ANY password would
do.

As a bonus, it looks like this service may not work with 
our remote authentication proxy server.  

Anyone found a way past this login/password part of the 
site?  As far as I can tell, using the internal URL for the 
search screen only works if you already have a login cookie 
stored on your drive.  

Incidentally, this publication/database is now being sold
by Lexis-Nexis.  Given L-N's past problems getting an
accurate source list out for their Academic Universe 
product, I'm not very hopeful about the Corporate 
Affiliations problems being solved anytime soon.  <sigh>

Stacy Pober
Information Alchemist
Manhattan College Libraries
spober at manhattan.edu