CD-Quickshare FAQ

Table of Contents

1. General
2. Installation
3. System
4. Administrator
5. User
6. Troubleshooting
7. Help

General

• What is CD-Quickshare?

CD-Quickshare is the easiest and fastest way to share all your CD-ROMs over a network. CD-Quickshare lets an Administrator create images from actual CD Titles and allows you to store them on a File Sever. The CD-Selector provides client software access to the database for all users that need to mount or dismount those titles.

• What will CD-Quickshare do for me?

CD-Quickshare addresses the growing need to access information and run applications on CD-ROM titles. By building a library of compressed CD-ROM images on a server, you can provide fast access to information without any headaches. With increasingly cheaper and cheaper prices on large Hard Drives, CD-Quickshare is an easy to insall, cost effective solution. No need to buy expensive CD-ROM Server/Towers/Jukeboxes that become outdated rapidly.

• What are the key features of CD-Quickshare?

Use a single CD-ROM drive to create a libray of CD Images, that can be accessed by any client PC.

Share CD-ROMs with no performance degradation.

Provide fast access on your network from any Windows PC.

Switch instantaneously between CD-ROM titles.

Free up your Network Administrator and IS personnel from time consuming CD-ROM management.

Maximize hardware investments.

Eliminate local CD-ROM drives and multiple CD inventories.

• Who needs CD-Quickshare?

Everyone from large corporations with complex networks spread out over multiple sites to small organizations with simple networks. Any group,department or company that has the need to access CD-ROM titles over a network.

Perfect for Education and Government institutes in a lab environment. Also ideal for:

Legal, Health Care, Financial and Publishing companies.

• Why is CD-Quickshare preferrable to other solutions?

CD-Quickshare is the first and only software solution that provides access to CD-ROM titles stored and cached on a hard drive. You won't have to purchase costly hardware solutions to share CDs over the network. CD-Quickshare eliminates the cumbersome, time consuming tasks of mounting CDs and managing CD inventories.

The bottom line: CD-Quickshare is the fastest, easiest and cheapest way to share CD-ROMs over a network.

• How does CD-Quickshare stack up to other CD-ROM solutions?

CD-Quickshare is the most cost effective and practical solution when it comes to sharing CD-ROM titles over a network. CD-ROM Towers/Jukeboxes/Servers are powerful but expensive hardware expenditures that can become quickly outdated. CD-Quickshare is easy to install and only requires Hard Disk space that is getting cheaper all the time. Check out our comparison of CD-Quickshare to a 14 Bay CD-ROM Tower solution and you make the decision.

Year 2000 Compliance Letter (Y2K)  (Read Letter)

Description: This document is a letter in Word 97 format from MediaPath Technologies that confirms that CD Quickshare, Media Agent and MA32 are year 2000 compliant.

Installation

• How do you install CD-Quickshare?

CD-Quickshare is a client software product that has two parts - CD-Administrator and CD-Selector. CD-Administrator is what gets installed the first time you install the software from the CD-ROM. The Administrator allows you to create a database and a shared location of where theCD images will reside.

Once the database is created(usually on a centrally located file server), the Administrator can setup the CD-Selector program for the regular end users to install. The CD-Selector lets users pick and choose which titles they want to access in a given drive letter.

For more detailed information and specifics on installing CD-Quickshare please refer to the software updates and product documentation page.

 

System

• What are the software requirements?

Host Database Server - Can run any of the follwng as long as the directory where CD-Quickshare resides is shared and allows read/write access:

• Windows NT 3.51/4.0
• Windows 95 with File and Print Sharing
• Novell NetWare 3.12/4.1x

Client Workstations - Need to run one of the following operating systems:

• Windows for Workgroups 3.11
• Windows 95

Network Protocol - Need to run any of the following protocols on your network:

• TCP/IP
• IPX/SPX
• NetBeui

• What are the hardware requirements?

Host Database Server -  Need as much hard disk space as you can get. A single CD Title can hold up to 650 MB of data, but most do not usually that much information. For a rough calculation to esitmate how much space you will need (using the average compression ratio of 2:1), follow the rule below:

# of CD Titles X 325 MB = Amount of Disk Space

Example:

10 X 325 MB = 3.25 GB

Regardless of what number you come up with, you will want to estimate on the high side. There are no memory (RAM) requirements for the the Host Database Server.

Client Workstations - Need at least 2 MB of free disk space and at least 8 MB of RAM. The CD-Administrator workstation must have a CD-ROM to install the software and create CD Images.

Network - CD-Quickshare is designed to run as a network application, but can be installed on a single machine if desired. It will run on the following types of networks

Peer-to-Peer

Windows 95                                                             Windows for Workgroups
LANtastic

Non Peer-to-Peer or UNC type Networks

LAN Manager
LAN Server                                                                   Novell NetWare 3.x, 4.x
Banyan VINES
Windows NT

Note: You can store the CD-QuickShare database on an NT machine, but you must install and run CD-QuickShare on a computer running Windows for Workgroups 3.11, or Windows 95.

• What types of CD-ROM formats is CD-Quickshare compatible with?

Most CD-ROM manufacturers use the ISO 9660 format, but sometimes a CD-ROM is created in a slightly different way. If you are having trouble reading a specific title mounted in the virtual drive after an image has been created, it is probably because the disc is not in a standard format. If you encounter a problem with a particular CD-ROM, contact MediaPath and the disc manufacturer to resolve the issue.

 

Administrator

• What features does the Administrator have?

When CD-Quickshare is installed for the first time, it will install the CD-Administrator client software on that PC. The Administrator can perform the following functions:

• Create, modify and delete CD images.
• Monitor license usage of titles to stay within legal limits.

User

Troubleshooting

• Problem occurs after CD-Quickshare is installed on a Windows 95 PC and when running for the first time, you get the following message:

The essential problem here is that CD-Quickshare needs connected devices (like CD-ROM and Zip drives) to be assigned specific drive letters, so CD-Quickshare can assign the 'virtual' drive letter.

To fix this problem, follow these instructions:

1. Exit out of CD-Quickshare and open the Control Panel.
2. Double Click on the System properties.
3. Click on the Device Manager Tab and open the CDROM option.
4. Double click on the actual CD-ROM drive device to open the the properties.
5. Click on the Settings Tab and note the Current drive letter assignment. Regardless of what the  Current drive letter is assigned to, for example E: and it use to be D:, then you will want to change the Start and End drive letter to D:. Click OK twice and let the system reboot.
6. Now when CD-Quickshare starts it will work propery.

For more detailed instructions on how to address this problem, click on this link - cdqfaqtswin95mscdex.htm

• Problem occurs when CD-Quickshare is installed on Windows 95 PC without a CD-ROM drive and user is attempting to save a file in Microsoft Word 97, the machine will hang.

In Microsoft Word 97, select the Tools pulldown menu and choose Options. Next select the General Tab, and make sure the 'Provide feedback with animation' is NOT checked. This option will not affect anything significant when it is checked OFF.

• Problem occurs when CD-Quickshare is installed on Windows 95 PC without a CD-ROM drive and user is attempting to use the AutoContent Wizard in Microsoft PowerPoint 97, the machine will hang.

In Microsoft PowerPoint 97, select the Tools pulldown menu and choose Options. Next select the General Tab, and make sure the 'Provide feedback with sound to screen elements' is NOT checked. This option will not affect anything significant when it is checked OFF.

• Problem occurs when CD-Quickshare is installed on Windows 95 PC without a CD-ROM drive and user is attempting to use the Database Wizard in Microsoft Access 97, the machine will hang.

In Microsoft Access 97, when a user is attempting create a new database through the wizard you should following steps are executed:

1. From the File-> New Pulldown menu option select the Databases Taband choose one of the examples to create a new database. This is called the Database Wizard and can be accessed when Access 97 starts up.
2. Once the user has selected a specific database example to create, the next option will ask for the new file name. Type any desired name and click CREATE.
3. Go through the Database Wizard and select any specific options desired. At the final screen, make sure the

'Do you want to start the database after the wizard builds it?   

Yes, start the database.

is NOT checked. This option will not affect anything significant when it is checked OFF.

• Problem occurs in CD-Quickshare, when users do not eject a CD Title from their 'virtual' drive before they exit the program.

From time to time, this problem will occur when the following happens:

1. Administrator has a user log out of CD-Quickshare, but user forgets to eject the CD, which results in lost licenses.
2. Administrator wishes to modify CD database and/or images and users are connected.

Solution

Fix #1

1. Administrator has to run CD-Administrator program and select the 'USERS' button and write down word for word the information for 'Name', 'CD-Rom', and 'Inserted' labels.
2. Make a backup copy of Cdshare.ini.
3. Edit the Cdshare.ini and in the [Users] section and change the 'User=', Inserted=', and 'Cdrom=' to match the information that was written down from the 'USERS' button.

Example:

My 'USERS' button reported:

Name Cd-Rom Inserted

Sam          CDQ         11/18/97  10:34:59 AM

Note: Two spaces between the date and time.

Edit Cdshare.ini and make the changes in [Users] section:

User=Sam

Inserted=11/18/97 10:34:59 AM

CDROM=CDQ

4. Exit Cd-QuickShare and restart Cd-QuickShare.
5. Click the 'EJECT' button to eject the Cd-Rom image.
6. Edit the Cdshare.ini and change settings back to original or just delete Cdshare.ini and copy the backup to its original

Fix #2

1. After the Administrator has made new images or modifications to existing images, make sure there are no licenses being used at the current time. Click on the Users button in the CD-Administrator and confirm that it is completely blank and no one is using any of the titles at the present moment. Then copy the files from the database path which can be found in Cdshare.ini in [Database] section on the line 'dbpath'= to a sub-directory on the hard drive. Make a folder called backup and copy these files there:

Cdqsdb1.dat

Cdqsdb1.ix

Cdqsdb1.dia

Cdqsdb2.dat

Cdqsdb2.ix

Cdqsdb2.dia

2. When a ghost user appears or when an Administrator wants to apply maintenance to any images, just copy these files to the database path directory and overwrite all files which will eject all Cd-Rom images.

Example:

My Cdshare.ini reported:

[Database]

dbpath=G:\cddata

Create a sub-directroy called backup and then copy the 6  cdqsdb files indicated above to G:\cddata\backup. When ghost users show up, then copy the files from G:\cddata\backup to G:\cddata. Now you will have a clean database again so there will be no ghost users taking up valuable licenses.

Note: This process will need to be executed any time new images are created so that the backup files are updated properly.

• Problem occurs in CD-Quickshare, when the Administrator can not erase ghost users or the database is corrupted.

If for some reason you can not erase ghost users from you current database configuration or you are getting database error messages, follow this procedure to create a new database.

1. Copy the current database files (cdqsdb*.*) to a backup directory and then delete them.
2. In you Cdshare.ini under the [Database] seciton, the dbpath= line specifies where your database is located. Delete whatever the information is after the equals sign, so that it looks like this and save the file:

dbpath=

3. Start CD-Quickshare and the program will now prompt that you have Missing Database Information and ask for the database location. Press the Cancel button to bypass this option right now and CD-Quickshare will start but you will not have access to any CD Titles yet.
4. Select the New CD button and the program will prompt you to Create Database. Type in the information that was in the dbpath= line before it was deleted in step 2 above. This will create the new cdqsdb database files and prompt you to enter the new cd title names. Type in the correct name that corresponds to the existing image specified at the bottom of the screen and click OK.
5. Now you have re-created database records for existing cd images. This creates a clean database with no ghost users. Double check by pressing the Users button and verifying that there are no current users of any cd titles.
6. Make a backup copy of the database files and do so again when new titles are added. Use these backed up files to replace the existing ones when problems occur.

 

Help

• What does the Online Help Guide provide?

Check out the Online Help Guide (169 KB) that can help answer questions not found in the FAQ.