NAS OPAC

winslowsmom · Post by **winslowsmom** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 2:35 am

A while back (maybe longer than I think) I used to be able to seach the NAS catalogue. I don't recall it being called OPAC or Online Public Access Catalogue. I could just type a name in, and oodles of entries for hundreds of years would come up. Petty crimes, divorces, letters, all kinds of things for persons with that name, it seemed, since the 1700s. It would have the file numbers, then you could click further info, and find out where you had to go to get it. Sometimes you could do it online, sometimes you had to go to the NRH, etc.

Am I remembering a different site? Now when I try this, I get a dsweb host telling me its a Windows based system. Of course, I have a Mac.
Did they change sytems in the last couple of years? Am I doing something wrong? Should I post this in the computer forum? Or is it a totally different web site I used to go to and I lost my bookmark for it?

Thank you
Cathy H
Fountain Valley

Post by **AndrewP** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 7:55 am

Hi Cathy,

You are right in saying that the NAS "OPAC" seems to take you to another website.

http://www.dswebhosting.info/NAS/dserve ... Search.tcl

I find it slow to navigate to find the search page, but it works, even if slowly, when you get there (I am a Windows PC user, not Mac). I would be surprised if in this day and age if a website would fail altogether when a Mac user tries to view it. Particularly as this is a Government based website, I would think they would have to write it to a standard that all the regular browsers and operating systems would be able to use it.

I would be interested to hear from other Mac users if they find the same problem as you are experiencing.

All the best,

AndrewP

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 9:54 am

Hi Cathy
That is interesting ( but frustrating for you) because I've noticed that when the NAS OPAC opens on a slow PC, you've time to see that it is infact running a prog called dserve.exe or similar... and then I noticed that some of the PCs at work refuse to run this, (I expect it is a security thing) so then there is no access to the catalogue. I had thought originally that dserve.exe would be something which runs at the database end, but it seems it has to run at the user's end, which brings me to where I am heading with this - if it is an .exe program, it will not run on a Mac...

I would drop them a line, exaplain your problem as you have done above, and ask if they are aware of problmes with Macs. Let us know how you get on.

Best wishes
Lesley

Post by **SarahND** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 10:13 am

Hi Cathy,
It works fine (if slowly, but that seems to be the case for everyone) on my mac, although it does say it is an .exe program. Having said that, I am currently trying to get on and it is particularly s-l-o-w today. But it does eventually get there.

Regards,
Sarah