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scratchpad:multiple_registrations_hack_with_hosts_file

This is PINES specific, but the concepts will work with any Evergreen installation, and any operating system for the client. Thanks Murphy!

For those that are interested, there’s an neat Windows hack that you can use to register your workstation multiple times on the same computer.

Say, for example, you need to be able to login to a workstation registered to several different libraries in your system, such as ARL-ATH, ARL-BOG, and ARL-BKM, but you don’t want to have to use different Windows accounts, or, in the old EG version, different installations of the Staff Client.

You can edit your Windows “hosts” file to allow you to do this (note that you need to be logged in as a Windows administrator in order to do this).

“hosts” is usually located under “C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc”, though you may need to search for it on your computer. Open this file in a text editor. It will probably contain the following text (possibly with more entries, if it’s been edited before):

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host

127.0.0.1      localhost

For my above example, you could add the following lines to the end of the hosts file:

209.168.247.199 ath.gapines.org        
209.168.247.199 bog.gapines.org   
209.168.247.199 bkm.gapines.org   

Save the hosts file and exit the text editor, then start the Staff Client. When you enter “ath.gapines.org” as the hostname and attempt to log on, you’ll be asked to register your workstation; register this one to arl-ath. Likewise, enter “bog.gapins.org” into the hostname field and register to arl-bog, and so on.

209.169.247.199 is the IP for gapines.org, so all the three new URLs, ath.gapines.org, bog.gapines.org, and bkm.gapines.org will all connect to the PINES servers, but will allow registration of different workstation.

Also, you can format the new URLs however you wish; instead of ath.gapines.org, you could simply call it “ATHENS”, so the entry in the hosts file would look like this:

          209.168.247.199 ATHENS

In this case, you’d enter ATHENS in the hostname field for Evergreen. You can also use this to register the workstation with a different name for various users on the same windows profile, for example, you could have

209.168.247.199 username1.gapines.org
209.168.247.199 username2.gapines.org

and register the workstation for each hostname to the library, but with a different workstation name.

Hope this is helpful!

-Murphy

scratchpad/multiple_registrations_hack_with_hosts_file.txt · Last modified: 2022/02/10 13:34 by 127.0.0.1

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