1. OhioNET EZProxy Service
Understanding
Integrating
Employing

2. Stakeholders
Vendors (EBSCO, etc)
Limit access to subscribers

3. Stakeholders
Institutions
Limit access to institutional boundaries

4. Stakeholders Faculty and Students Easily access services within
these boundaries

5. Problem: Making limits easy
Solution: remove login constraints for customer campus networks
ID campus by its IP number range
Register this information with the vendor
Automatically log in all customers from that range
to =

6. New Problem: Off-Campus Users
Off-campus users use networks that cannot be registered with the vendor
VPN: off-campus users communicate through vendors through campus network
Costly: requires licenses and bandwidth
Relatively complicated: requires software installation
Proxy: off campus users communicate through one IP address registered as “on-campus” with the vendor

7. Solution: re-route the user
Proxy IP address is registered with the vendor
User is routed through the proxy =

8. EZProxy: How it works Authenticates user Connects to resource
We use the catalog as an ID database
Connects to resource
User talks only to it (looks like a website)
Vendor talks only to it (looks like a browser)
I’m EBSCO
I’m Mt Union

9. How it works: on the user’s side
URL rewriting
Translates URL so that user goes only to proxy
Theological implications are included free of charge!

10. How it works: requirements
User’s browser must accept cookies
EZProxy must be configured properly for the vendor’s website
That’s it! Of course browser must also have whatever the resource requires (Javascript, etc)

11. How it works: adding a new resource
Tell the vendor your proxy IP
Contact opalhelp with resource title and URL to be added to the proxy
opalhelp will send back a link
Test proxy from off-campus
If it fails, report to opalhelp for further configuration
Success? Put link into your links page

12. How it works: providing access
Host links yourself
Full control over look and organization of links page
Link text provided by opalhelp
Host links on proxy server
OhioNET provides a simple menu page with links
Some basic decoration is possible
Login necessary to see provided resources

13. How it works: management
Provide some communications channel for off-campus users on your proxy/links pages
Report connectivity problems to opalhelp
Vendors sometimes forget IP addresses
Relay messages about changing vendor domains, URLs, etc, to opalhelp

14. OhioNET proxy features
OhioLINK via OhioNET
Just one login for all your resources
Register your campus IP range with us for pass-through
Just one link for both on and off-campus users
Distinguish users by ptype, status
Offer certain resources only to certain ptypes
Statistics provided on demand via web

15. More features Alternative authentication
Other data sources: servers, Shibboleth, LDAP, Windows Active Directory, CAS, others
SSL encryption on logins (standard for OPAL)
Abuse detection and response
Limits set on download rate
Limits set on number of simultaneous sessions per login
Abused logins can be identified, disabled

16. Questions? Ask now Ask later: opalhelp@ohionet.org Alternatively…
Ask the list: (“Subscribe” without quotes in the body)
Ask the list archives (agonizingly slow): ls.suny.edu/read/?forum=ezproxy

17. Preloaded Questions
Do we need to make a list of databases if we decide to proxy OLINK?
Yes, Title and URL, each on its own line or its own column in Excel, please.
As URLs change, who maintains them?
We will make the changes. It is a good idea to send us a heads-up, however.
Do proxy URLs work in the catalog?
Yes. The proxy URL is easy to build and can be used like any other URL.