{"id":1387,"date":"2009-10-08T13:48:32","date_gmt":"2009-10-08T17:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/desktop\/help\/desktop\/troubleshooting\/"},"modified":"2023-09-18T11:32:19","modified_gmt":"2023-09-18T15:32:19","slug":"troubleshooting","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/services\/cccs\/desktop\/software\/troubleshooting\/","title":{"rendered":"Web Authentication Troubleshooting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Many sites within the BU website require that you authenticate before being granted access. If you have problems with that process, or any other problems with a web-based application, the following suggestions will be helpful. <strong>Please note that, while there is support for many mobile web browsers, BlackBerrys with JavaScript disabled may have issues authenticating.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><strong><a name=\"steady\"><\/a><\/strong>Prompted to Login repeatedly? Steady your Rotating IP address<\/h3>\n<p>If you are not on the BU network, it&#8217;s possible that the Internet Service Provider you are using has implemented a rotating IP address system. (Your network IP address needs to remain the same during the course of a session in order for the session to function properly.) <strong>A typical symptom of this problem is that you will be prompted to Authenticate repeatedly.<\/strong> To work around this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div><strong>Connect to the VPN on your computer<\/strong><br \/>\nSee if it helps to first connect to the VPN via <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/vpn.bu.edu\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">http:\/\/vpn.bu.edu<\/a><\/strong>. Once you are connected, you should then return to the application you are trying to use and it should work properly. (It&#8217;s ok to quit the browser if you need to &#8211; you will not lose the VPN connection.) For more details (and instructions for configuring the built-in Mac client) see the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/services\/cccs\/remote\/vpn\/use\/\">VPN page<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Connect to the VPN on your mobile device<\/strong><br \/>\n<span><span>To configure your mobile phone or tablet\u00a0to access the BU VPN, detailed instructions<span> can be found on the following pages:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/services\/cccs\/remote\/vpn\/use\/\"><span><span>BU VPN for Android devices <\/span><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/services\/cccs\/remote\/vpn\/use\/iphone\/\"><span><span>BU VPN for iOS devices<\/span><\/span><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Make sure your login information is correct<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Make sure to log in correctly<\/strong><br \/>\nMake sure you are using only the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/services\/security\/iam\/authentication\/kerberos\/kerberos\/\"><em> login<\/em><\/a> portion of <em>login<\/em>@bu.edu, and that you are using your BU Kerberos password. If you have forgotten your password, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/myaccount\">you can reset it<\/a>. If you are trying to log in to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/support\/special\/applicants\/\">BU Web Account<\/a> (as in the case of BU applicants) your <em>login<\/em> is, instead, the <em>entire<\/em> email address you supplied when you created the account &#8211; for example, sampleperson@isp.com.<\/p>\n<h3><a name=\"basic\"><\/a>Do basic troubleshooting<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Quit\/Exit the browser and try again<\/strong><br \/>\nSometimes all you need is a fresh start. See if it helps to quit the browser and try again.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Try clearing the cache, or try a &#8220;hard&#8221; Refresh\/Reload<\/strong><br \/>\nIt can also help to clear the browser&#8217;s cache. Instructions can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/support\/browsers\/clear-cache\/\">on our website<\/a>. You could also try a Refresh\/Reload while holding down the Apple or Control key.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Is your Authentication issue specific to accessing BU&#8217;s web-based mail?<\/strong><br \/>\nMake sure you are starting at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/webmail\">www.bu.edu\/webmail<\/a>. If you&#8217;re using a bookmark that points to any page other than <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/webmail\">www.bu.edu\/webmail<\/a>, please change it to point to that page. If you find that you are repeatedly getting a BU login screen, please review the <a href=\"#steady\">Steady the IP address<\/a> section below.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"bodytypeTimes\">Still not working?<\/h3>\n<p class=\"bodytypeTimes\">If you have tried everything listed above but are still having problems, you will want to run through the suggestions listed below.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bodytypeTimes\"><strong>Test with a different browser<\/strong><br \/>\nFor example, if you were using Edge, try using Firefox. In terms of troubleshooting, the browser change will reveal whether or not the problem is related to a setting in the browser you were using or, instead, to something about your Internet connection and\/or firewall\/security software.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bodytypeTimes\"><strong>If using a different browser doesn&#8217;t help, test from a different computer<\/strong><br \/>\nIf the step above doesn&#8217;t help, see if the problem still occurs when you are using a different computer on the same network (that&#8217;s connected in the same way &#8211; e.g., both wireless). In terms of troubleshooting, the computer change will reveal whether or not the problem is related to something about your Internet connection, or to firewall\/security software, or, possibly, to an issue with your account.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bodytypeTimes\"><strong>Can&#8217;t access BU sites but other sites work properly?<\/strong><br \/>\nSometimes people find that they can&#8217;t get to BU sites and the problem occurs only on one computer. If this happens, test with a different browser on that computer. If only one browser is an issue, make sure that you don&#8217;t have any preconfigured proxy settings (from another school or organization) in the browser you are having a problem with (see our Help for removing proxy setting from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/services\/cccs\/remote\/ezproxy\/faq\/firefox-proxy\/\">Mozilla Firefox<\/a>). Otherwise, make sure your computer is clear of viruses and spyware, and that you have reviewed the other options listed on this page.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Check your firewall settings<\/strong><br \/>\nSecurity software can be set to block cookies. If you have one of these programs installed, open it and see if you might have turned on (or <em>it<\/em> might have turned on) options to &#8220;protect privacy&#8221; or &#8220;block cookies.&#8221; If so, you will need to turn that setting off to authenticate.<\/p>\n<p><strong>If you can&#8217;t upload attachments or files, allow www.bu.edu as an exception in your pop-up blocker<\/strong><br \/>\nSometimes pop-up blockers will prevent your browser from working properly with BU web-based applications. One symptom we sometimes see, for example, is that people cannot upload attachments to web-based mail or other files to other BU applications. To fix this, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/support\/browsers\/pop-up-blocker\/\">set your pop-up blocker to allow www.bu.edu as an exception<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Check your computer for spyware<\/strong> If nothing mentioned above has resolved the problem for you, it&#8217;s possible that spyware is disrupting your browser, your Internet connection, or your ability to maintain a consistent IP address. Spyware can cause all sorts of problems so, in all mysterious troubleshooting situations, we recommend that you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/services\/cccs\/desktop\/removal\/security\/spyware\/preventing\/\">clean and protect your machine<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Contact us if nothing listed above resolves the problem<\/strong> If nothing listed above has resolved the problem for you, it&#8217;s possible that there is an issue on our end, or with your account, and you should <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/about\/help-center\/hours\/\">contact us<\/a>. However, please do make sure that you have reviewed every possibility listed above. We&#8217;ll need to know what you&#8217;ve already tried, and the results of your testing, in order to help narrow down the problem. Please also send the text of any error codes you are seeing.<\/p>\n<h3>Other troubleshooting resources<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/services\/cccs\/desktop\/software\/troubleshooting\/removing-password-from-browsers-saved-password-list\/\">How to remove a Saved Password from a Browser<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/services\/cccs\/remote\/ezproxy\/faq\/\">Help using EZproxy to access a library resource<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many sites within the BU website require that you authenticate before being granted access. If you have problems with that process, or any other problems with a web-based application, the following suggestions will be helpful. Please note that, while there is support for many mobile web browsers, BlackBerrys with JavaScript disabled may have issues authenticating&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1348,"featured_media":0,"parent":79,"menu_order":10,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1387"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1348"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1387"}],"version-history":[{"count":50,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147713,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1387\/revisions\/147713"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/79"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}