OpenCD Campus CD/DVD Server : Accessing CDs / DVDs

Home About Products Buy Support Contact

Intro CD/DVD Servers Content Delivery Solutions

Smarter Access to CDs/DVDs 1. Accessing CD/DVDs via the Avantis Client (incorporating MVD™ technology) 2. Accessing CD/DVDs via Microsoft Networking 3. Accessing CD/DVDs via a Web Browser

1. Accessing CD/DVDs via the Avantis Client (incorporating MVD™ technology)

Avantis provides an optional virtual CD/DVD drive client for the OpenCD product range to support problematic CD-ROMs and DVDs. This software is called the Avantis Client and incorporates Multimedia Virtual Drive (MVD™) technology. The Avantis Client is so sophisticated that it can even network most copy protected CD-ROMs!

Support for all CD/DVD formats

Avantis CD servers have always offered the unique feature that they support ALL formats of CD-ROM & DVD. There are virtually no CDs that Avantis can't network. This level of compatibility cannot be achieved without the use of virtual CD-ROM drive client software on the workstations. Avantis Client software presents virtual CD-ROM drives that operate in exactly the same way as real CD-ROM drives, supporting the same full set of device calls as a CD-ROM drive. This also requires that the CD imaging technique that was used to cache/image the original CD records all the original information, including such oddities as sub-channels, CRCs, audio tracks, session information etc.

Avantis offers the most sophisticated type of virtual CD/DVD drive and CD/DVD imaging software in its class.

NB. Avantis Client is NOT available for Windows Vista.

Using the Avantis Client

The Avantis Client can be installed on a workstation by simply running the setup.exe program or by using tools such as Windows 2000 group policies, Veritas WinINSTALL, Novell ZenWorks or MS SMS to roll out the software to the workstations.

Typically, once installed, the user will see new virtual CD-ROM drives in Windows Explorer – the user can browse the OpenCD servers to see what CDs are available and can drag and drop CDs onto virtual CD-ROM drives in order that they can be accessed.

The Avantis CD Installation Wizard can also be used to automate the selection and mapping of CDs when particular shortcuts or programs are run.

Accessing CD/DVD images using the Avantis Client

[Click to enlarge]

2. Accessing CD/DVDs via Microsoft Networking

Using this method, CD/DVD images on OpenCD are immediately available on the network, with zero client software installation. The CD/DVD images can be accessed using Microsoft networking in many ways, some examples of which are:

1 OpenCD appears automatically under Network Neighborhood
2 A single drive letter can be mapped to an OpenCD share containing all of the CD and DVD images
3 A single drive letter can be mapped to a single CD or DVD image
4 Files and folders can be accessed directly using UNC paths

Whichever method is used, normal security controls are observed, with users only being able to access images that they have been permitted to.

The Microsoft Networking access methods are discussed in detail below.

Accessing CDs in Network Neighborhood

Network Neighborhood

Network Neighborhood is normally an icon displayed on your desktop or found under Windows Explorer. Opening Network Neighborhood will show a list of workstations and servers in your workgroup or domain. Subsequently, clicking on ‘Entire Network’ will show a list of workgroups and domains, under which you would see a workgroup (normally called ‘Opencdworkgroup’) that contains the OpenCD (or in some cases more than one OpenCD). Clicking on the OpenCD icon will show a folder (normally called ‘Images’) that contains all the CD images. Sometimes, as well as the Images folder, there may be other folders. These are CD images made available by the OpenCD administrator for individual drive mapping.

Mapped Network Drives

You can map all the CD images held in the ‘Images’ folder to a single drive letter.

You can do this in two ways:

• Find the Images folder using Network Neighborhood, right-click on it, select the drive letter required then click on OK

• Under Windows Explorer, click on Tools > Map Network Drive, choose the drive letter required, then enter the path of the images folder, for example:
\\<OpenCD>\<Images>

As well as always being included within the ‘images’ folder, some CD images may also have been enabled for individual mapping to drive letters. This can be done in exactly the same way as mapping the ‘Images’ folder.

Universal Naming Convention (UNC)

Files may be accessed from OpenCD using the Universal Naming Convention (UNC). For example, a file on OpenCD stored on the image entitled ‘Image Title’, could be opened using:

\\<OpenCD>\<Images>\<Image Title>\<Filename.ext>

3. Accessing CD/DVDs via a Web Browser CDs/DVDs on OpenCD can be accessed remotely from anywhere on the network or World Wide Web using Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape, preferably version 4 or higher. When OpenCD is accessed via a web browser (by typing in the OpenCD server name or IP address) a menu is presented giving a number of options.				The Main Menu [Click to enlarge]

OpenCD Web Access – Browsing CD/DVD images

Clicking on the "Browse Images" option will list the CDs and DVDs that are available to them. Clicking on the title of a CD will list the files and folders contained on the CD.

Browsing CD/DVD images

[Click to enlarge]

OpenCD Web Access – Browsing files and folders

When exploring files and folders via the web interface, OpenCD behaves exactly like a normal website following the same rules.

For example, clicking on certain types of file will open the file, e.g. picture files (.jpg, .gif etc.), text files (.txt, .doc etc.) or multimedia files (.mov, .avi etc.).

Clicking on an executable file (.exe) will offer the choice of downloading the file to the local hard drive of the workstation, or opening the file directly from OpenCD.

Browsing files and folders

[Click to enlarge]

	Overview			Server Management
	Key Features			Accessing CD/DVDs
	Technical Specification			Brochure
	Model Selection			Press Reviews

Product Comparison Chart

Applications

Case Studies

FAQs

You are in : AvantisWorld.com > Products > CD/DVD Servers > OpenCD.Campus > Accessing CD/DVDs


	State-of-the-art web acceleration and educational content hosting with central management options for large deployments




	High performance CD/DVD Servers for sharing multimedia on your network with virtual drive technology guaranteeing 100% CD/DVD compatibility

Subscribe to Email News Letter