[WEB4LIB] RealPlayer on public access machines

[GRAY, PAUL]

I'm not in the loop enough with our engineers and those who monitor LAN
performamce enough to know for sure -- but I have always FELT that use of
streaming audio and video -- which by definition is CONSTANTLY taking up
bandwidth was a potential source of congestion.

MY biggest problem with it - is in local machine performance.
We use IE as our shell with runapp.exe to automatically reload it if it is
closed.
The problem is -- many times -- although the browser WINDOW is closed --
elements continue to run in the background 'fooling' runapp into thinking IE
is still running.  So patrons are left with a blank screen until the station
is restarted.

It has been hard to isolate the exact culprit here -- but -- every time I
have looked at TaskManager -- among the running processes I have always
found components of realplayer.
Coincidence?  
You more technical types tell me.

For the foreseeable future btw - we WILL be continuing to provide this at
our librarian's request.

Paul H. Gray
Library Manager, CLC and LRC LAN
TCC Northeast Campus Library
Hurst, TX

-----Original Message-----
From: Small Candice B. [mailto:cbsmall at RADFORD.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2001 8:52 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] RealPlayer on public access machines



I'm interested in learning about libraries' experiences with RealPlayer
installed on public access machines.  A search of the archive revealed a
discussion in the spring about possible security holes left by
RealPlayer, and of course there is the annoyance of having Real place
its icons and files all over your machine.  I am specifically interested
in bandwidth problems.  I've heard more than one librarian say s/he will
not put RealPlayer on the network because it will slow down the entire
building's Internet use.  And then I've heard librarians say that they
have RealPlayer on numerous machines and never noticed a problem.  I'd
be very interested in hearing from people who have installed RealPlayer
on patrons' stations.

Feel free to mail me off-list.

-Candice 

Candice Benjes-Small
Reference/Instruction Librarian
McConnell Library, Radford University, VA
540-831-6801
cbsmall at radford.edu