1. Student E-Mail

   All of us at the School Library program are absolutely committed to helping you succeed. But just as it is our responsibility to provide you with important and timely information, you are equally responsible, as a self-directed adult learner, to be reachable!

   New students should receive a welcome packet with instructions for accessing various resources, a mouse pad with frequently used links, and an e-mail address ending with the domain: @mansfield.edu. Though most instructors give you the option of using your own personal e-mail account, you should be aware that any official news from the university will ONLY go to your MU address. If you change or cancel that address, you run the risk of missing important announcements and news. We also discourage use of school (K-12) email accounts, since access is often limited during non-school times or so tightly secure that attachments can are problematic.

   If you prefer your own software you can use your MU account to receive messages from MU's traditional WebMail account. But note that new students (after Fall 2006) will use a customized version of Microsoft's Hotmail service that is accessible only from the web. In fact, all students will use the newer Windows Live (the next generation of Hotmail) sometime in late 2006 or the beginning of 2007. See MU's Mounties Mail site further further information.
   
   Until the upgrade, but not afterwards, MU mail supports mail forwarding. This feature allows you to forward all messages sent to your MU account to your personal account, so you don't have to log in to MU's WebMail program. To help you configure your mail program or service to retrieve MU mail, we have a somewhat outdated guide that explains the process, at:

   http://library.mansfield.edu/popmail.html

   As always, if you have a problem or question, use our AskUs Form.

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2. Various Login Problems

Many students have problems logging in to either their course or library resources. Below are the four most likely causes for login problems:

1. You aren't using the correct login and password. To verify your correct login and password for various MU accounts visit the My Accounts web page, at:

   https://info.mansfield.edu/myaccount.

   You will be asked for your 7-digit student ID number, the last 4 digits of your social security number, and the year of your birth to login. You will then be provided with logins and passwords for your email account, Blackboard, and MU's registration system (WebAdvisor). For your 18-digit library barcode, please refer to the mouse pad that you should have received in the New Student Welcome Packet, or use the Ask Us form to request it.

2. The AOL internal browser will NOT work with Blackboard and many library databases. If you are an AOL customer you should use Internet Explorer or another supported browser, such as Firefox, Safari or Netscape (but not a version prior to 7.2).

3. Some resources require browser "cookies" to be enabled. This is a method for web sites that you visit frequently to remember you, and in the case of security protected sites, to help authenticate you during your online session. Databases in particular require cookies to be enabled. However, many people disable this feature, often without knowing the consequences, by setting Internet security to high.

   To access the security settings in Internet Explorer, click Tools, Internet Options. You should set security to medium if you plan to search library databases, as shown below.



4. A related problem is the use of third-party cookies. This occurs when you enter a site (e.g. library database) through another password-protected site (e.g. Blackboard). The database suspects that you are a hacker trying to mask your identity, and therefore refuses the cookie. Assuming you're using Internet Explorer, click Tools, Internet Options, and then select the Security tab. In the Internet zone click Custom Level and make sure the level is set to no higher than medium.

   Also check the setting for the Privacy tab (in Internet Options). That should be set to medium or lower. If that does not work, try returning to the Privacy tab and select Advanced. On that screen check the box for overriding cookie settings. After that you should close your browser and try again.

5. Home security (firewall) products, such as Norton Internet Security (see below), McAfee Personal Firewall, Black Ice, and Zone Alarm, may block access to sites that receive their login and password information from an intermediary site. A good example is the case with many library databases that rely on a proxy server to confirm your student status and access the database as if you were on campus.
   
   To login to third-party sites you need to explicitly "permit" these software programs to unblock access. Since every program (and even versions of the same program) is different, you'll have to read the software's manual or help page to find out how to permit specific sites.
   
   For details on Norton Internet Security, check out our brief Guide. The screen shots below demonstrate settings for Norton Internet Security settings.





The settings for McAfee Personal Firewall are similar, except you must specify numeric IP addresses. For help with McAfee see their Technical Support site, at http://ts.mcafeehelp.com/default.asp

6. Anti-virus software with password blocking options may also prevent access. Check its security settings or disable protection while you use the resource in question. With PC computers you usually right click an icon in the bottom task tray and select the option to temporarily disable protection (then later do the same to re-enable it).

7. You may in fact be viewing stored (cached) pages on your own computer, not a live version of the actual site. See the next section regarding the common browser cache problem.

8. A growing menace to web users is the presence of spyware or more generally, malware (mal is the Latin root word for bad). A related Internet pest is adware. Regardless of their subtle differences, all of these web maladies characterize a type of software that snoops into your computer and transmits information about you or your computer to a third-party without your permission.

   Sadly, many legitimate web sites, businesses, and marketing companies install this software on your computer without your knowledge to place advertising banners on web pages, examine your purchasing or web site preferences, give you new search tools to find their products, or otherwise help change your shopping habits.

   Unfortunately, they often interfere with your computer, and most commonly, your web browser. Usual symptoms include sluggish performance, problems logging in to password-restricted web sites, obnoxious pop-up ads appearing when least expected, and in less common instances, computer crashes.

   To get rid of spyware, there are basically two types of anti-spyware: free and not free. The best free software is Spybot, Spycatcher (Express) and Ad-Aware (Basic). The reputable free stuff works great, but beware of unsolicited pop-up ads and spam that suggest you download their free software to get rid of spyware, as quite often these solicitations actually install spyware programs themselves.

   For $20-30, fee-based software runs in the background and stops spyware from installing in the first place, which is the better solution. We recommend the Plus or Pro versions of Ad-Aware ($27 and $40 respectively) or Spy Sweeper.

   Another program that is very small and fast is Hijack This. Intended for advanced users, it is helpful for troubleshooting, as it allows you to create a log file with a list of all of the background applications running on your computer. Most of the identified applications are necessary and desirable, which is why it's dangerous to delete programs identified by Hijack This unless you know what they are. Still, you could greatly help Tech Support personnel help you by running a scan of your computer (it takes about 4-5 seconds) and sending them the log file (just click Save Log). That file will help identify problem applications, which you can later delete.

   To guard against unwanted computer attacks, you should develop a computer security plan, consisting of these steps:

   1. Buy and install anti-virus software

   2. Buy or download for free anti-spyware software

   3. Scan your computer with these tools at least twice a month, if not weekly

   4. Update the software above by checking their web sites for updates and new definition files (weekly if possible); note that most good software provides it own automated update and scan features

   5. Update your operating system at least monthly, or upon hearing news about major Internet security problems. On a PC running Windows look in the Start menu for Windows Update or go to Microsoft's Windows Update site. Mac users can also check for security updates in system preferences (location dependent on Mac OS version).

9. We strongly recommend that you routinely update your operating system and browser at least every 2-3 months, as well as anti-virus and anti-spyware software. This should NOT be considered optional. Note that when you install updates you should close other applications, including anti-virus software, to prevent complications.

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3. Strange Web Behavior (Browser Cache Problem)

Often students and faculty report that their browser can't view certain pages or retrieve documents from their course. There could potentially be countless reasons for this, and troubleshooting usually begins with the obvious (e.g. are you connected to the Internet, is the site unavailable, are you using an old or unsupported browser, such as AOL or Netscape 4.0, etc.).

One possible reason (see also the suggestions above for login problems, especially regarding Spyware), which is easy to correct, is the so-called browser cache problem. This is especially apparent if you're online, click a link and get the message, "file not found." What happens is that your web browser stores (caches) web pages into memory to make commonly visited sites load faster. You assume that the information on your screen is live (i.e. the most current) and click to open a document or attachment, but quite possibly you're trying to open that document from your own hard drive (the cached version).

If you do try to open a document and get an error message that the file can't be found, immediately clear your cache and refresh the page (you might have to close and re-open the browser), using the procedure below. Likewise, you may want to set your cache to check for newer versions of web pages upon every visit, as well as keep the disk space used for caching very low.

Below are instructions for Internet Explorer and Netscape:

Internet Explorer

Netscape

Click Tools, Internet Options Click Delete Files (Temporary Internet Files) to clear cache; if you don't do this often and your disk space setting is high, this may take 10 minutes or so Now look at cache settings... To change cache settings, click the Settings button within Internet Options Change "Check for Newer Versions of Stored Pages" to Every visit to the page (if you have a slow dial-up connection this may slow down the time it takes to open pages that you view often; if so, change it to automatically) Optionally, change the setting for disk space to something small (1-10 Mb).

Click Edit, Preferences Click Advanced (menu on left side of preferences window) and then Cache Click both buttons for Clear Memory Cache and Clear Disk Cache Now look at cache settings... Change "Compare the page in the cache to the page on the network " (bottom of window) to Every time I view the page. Optionally, change Memory and Disk Cache settings to something small (4096-10240 Kb).

If your browser is set to more than 10Mb of space for caching, which is still plenty, a huge chunk of hard drive space is needed to store hundreds and possibly thousands of stored images and html files for every web page that you've visited since the last cache clean up. This can also explain why you might have far less disk space than you'd expect, since you normally don't see these files, as they're buried deep in your computer -- for example, in a path like:

C:\Documents and Settings\Marian Beezley\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\

Clearing your cache weekly will help insure the health of your computer and more often than not, may fix unusual problems that seem not to affect others.

As always, if you have a problem or question, use our AskUs Form.