Off Campus FAQ’s & Troubleshooting

The EZproxy software permits our Library patrons access a variety of databases and electronic resources from off-campus.  If you encounter a problem accessing the databases and electronic resources please take a moment to go through our frequently asked question list and troubleshooting guide.

1. Why do I need to use EZproxy?
2. When do I use the EZproxy?
3. What browsers are supported by EZproxy?
4. What do I do when EZproxy prompts me for a username and password?
5. What do I do when I can login to EZproxy, but I can’t go any further?
6. What do I do after I check my settings, but I still cannot login?
7. I’m using Ezproxy, but the document I found is an Adobe Acrobat PDF file.  How do I view or print the document file?
8. Are you having problems printing with ReferenceUSA?

1.  Why do I need to use EZproxy?

Our database providers require us to confine access to currently enrolled students, faculty, staff, and library patrons. On campus access is I.P. authenticated, thus only a few resources require a username and password. Off campus access requires you to login through a proxy server.  When you attempt to login from off campus you will be prompted for a username and password. 

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2.       When do I use Ezproxy?  There a two occasions when you need to use remote access:

a.      you are off-campus, i.e., at home, a friends house, traveling

b.      you are on campus but you are using your own ISP, Internet Service Provider (i.e., AOL, Prodigy) to connect to the internet

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3.  What browsers are supported by Ezproxy?

Any browser should work with Ezproxy.  If you are having problems that are not related to login information, please try a different browser, such as, Firefox, Netscape Navigator/Communicator, etc.

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4.  What do I do when EZproxy prompts me for a username and password?

Use the remote access information that can be found in your Campus Cruiser account email Debbie Jones.  Check that Caps Lock key is turned off.

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5.       What do I do when I can login to EZproxy, but I can’t go any further?

*Make note the information below pertains to the most common configurations for Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator/Communicator:

 a. deleting the cache

• Internet Explorer 4.x: Go to the View menu and choose Internet Options. Click on the Delete Files button. Click OK. Click on Settings. Click in the Every visit to page radio button. Click OK.
• Internet Explorer 5.x/6.x: Go to the Tools menu and choose Internet Options. Click on the Delete Files button. Click OK. Click on Settings. Click in the Every visit to page radio button. Click OK.
• Netscape Navigator/Communicator 4.x: Go to the Edit menu and choose Preferences. Click Advanced. Click Cache. Click on the Clear Memory Cache button. Click OK. Click on Clear Disk Cache button. Click OK. Click in the Every time radio button below the words Document in cache is compared to document on network. Click OK.
• Netscape Navigator/Communicator 6.x: Go to the Edit menu and choose Preferences. Click Advanced. Click Cache. Click on the Clear Memory Cache button. Click OK. Click on Clear Disk Cache button. Click OK. Click in the Every time I view the page radio button below the words Compare the page in the cache to the page on the network. Click OK.
• Netscape Navigator/Communicator 7.x: Go to the Edit menu and choose Preferences. Click Advanced. Click Cache. Click on the Clear Memory Cache button. Click OK. Click on Clear Disk Cache button. Click OK. Click in the Every Time I view the page radio button below the words Compare the page in the cache to the page on the network. Click OK.

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b. enabling cookies

You need to do the following since your browser may have cached an unsuccessful try when logging into Ezproxy:

• Internet Explorer 4.x: Go to the View menu and choose Internet Options. Click on the Advanced tab. Scroll down to the Security section and look for the Cookies option. If you do not see an option for Cookies, double-click the Padlock item next to Security. Click in the check box next to Always accept cookies. If there is no Always accept cookies option, double-click on the Cookies icon. Click OK.
• Internet Explorer 5.x: Go to the Tools menu and choose Internet Options. Click on the Security tab. Click on Custom Level. Scroll down to the Cookies section and select Enable. Click OK.
• Internet Explorer 6.x: Go to the Tools menu and choose Internet Options. Click on the Privacy tab. Click Advanced. Scroll down to the Cookies section and select Always Allow Session Cookies. Click OK.
• Netscape Navigator/Communicator 4.x: Go to the Edit menu and choose Preferences. Click on Advanced. Click in the Accept All Cookies radio button. Click OK.
• Netscape Navigator/Communicator 6.x: Go to the Edit menu and choose Preferences. Double click on Privacy & Security. Select Cookies from the drop-down menu. Click in the Enable All Cookies radio button. Click OK.
• Netscape Navigator/Communicator 7.x: Go to the Edit menu and choose Preferences. Double-click on Privacy & Security. Click on Cookies. Click in the Enable all cookies radio button. Click OK.

*Make note that enabling cookies involves some risk in terms of privacy and security. You may wish to re-adjust your settings after completing your search.

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c. enabling JavaScript

• Internet Explorer 4.x: Choose Internet Options from the View menu. Click on the Security tab. Select Internet. If there is a slider bar, move the bar to Medium, otherwise click on the Custom Level button. Scroll down to Scripting/Active Scripting. Click Enable if this is not selected. Click OK.
• Internet Explorer 5.x: Go to the Tools menu and choose Internet Options. Click on the Security tab. Click on Internet. If there is a slider bar, move the bar to Medium, otherwise click on the Custom Level button. Scroll down to the Scripting section. Click Enable if this is not selected. Click OK.
• Internet Explorer 6.x: Go to the Tools menu and choose Internet Option. Click on the Security tab. Click on Internet. Click on the Custom Level button. Scroll down to the Scripting section. Click in the Enable radio button under Active Scripting if this is not selected. Click OK.
• Netscape Navigator/Communicator 4.x: Choose Preferences from the Edit menu. Click on Advanced. Click in the check box for Enable JavaScript if this is not already checked. Click OK.
• Netscape Navigator/Communicator 6.x: Go to the Edit menu and choose Preferences. Select Advanced. Click in the check box next to Enable JavaScript for Navigator. Click OK.
• Netscape Navigator/Communicator 7.x: Go to the Edit menu and choose Preferences. Click on Advanced. Click on Scripts & Plug-in. Under Enable JavaScript, click the checkbox next to Navigator. Click OK.

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6.       What do I do after I check my settings, but I still cannot login?

 a. are you using AOL?

ISPs that use their own versions of Internet Explorer (such as AOL or Prodigy) sometimes present a problem. An easy workaround is to connect to the Internet using the copy of Internet Explorer provided by the ISP, minimize the browser session and then launch another copy of Internet Explorer. Use this second copy of Internet Explorer to search our electronic resources.

b. do you have a personal firewall installed?

Personal firewalls can cause problems with EZproxy. Norton Personal Firewall is a common offender as maybe others.  Temporarily disable your firewall/virus protection and see if that allows you to connect properly. You will need to consult your software manual and/or contact the software company's technical support for help in setting your security software so that you can access our library resources.

c.       is the SSL facility disabled on your browser?

This can prevent you from logging onto either a database or electronic resource that uses Secure Socket Layer. 

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7.       I’m using Ezproxy, but the document I found is an Adobe Acrobat PDF file.  How do I view or print the document file?

 Adobe Acrobat documents are also known as PDF (Portable Document Format) files. PDF documents are now widely used to publish full-text articles on the Web. You need a copy of the Adobe Acrobat Reader plug-in to view and print a PDF document. In most cases, this presents no problem, as a copy of this plug-in was almost certainly installed with your browser. If you don't have a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can obtain it from the Adobe site.

Many Adobe Acrobat documents are quite large: their size is often measured in Megabytes (millions of bytes) rather than Kilobytes (thousands of bytes) as is the case with most HTML files. This can cause problems when you are on a slow connection. A common symptom is that nothing happens after you click on a link to an Adobe Acrobat file. The Adobe Acrobat window comes up, but the document remains blank. In such cases, your solution might be to download the file onto your hard drive and view or print it from there. The process is as follows:

• Hold your mouse over the link to the PDF file
• Right click on the link
• Choose Save Target As in the pop-up menu which appears
• Select a location on your hard drive in the Save As dialog box
• Click on the Save button

The file is now saved onto your hard drive. You can open this file just by double-clicking on its icon.

If you can view an Adobe Acrobat file, but have troubles printing it (receiving reports such as PostScript errors or out-of-memory errors), there are a number of things you can do. You can try to:

• Save the file to your hard drive first (see above).
• Print it on a different printer, preferably one with more memory.
• Print it one page at a time.

If none of these work, it's probably time to download a newer copy of Adobe Acrobat. The latest copy of Adobe Acrobat is available from the Adobe site.

8.       Are you having problems printing with ReferenceUSA?

ReferenceUSA is now Internet Explorer 7.0 compliant.  

If you're using a version of Internet Explorer earlier than 6.0, you may have problems printing without adjusting the page margins:  

• In Internet Explorer, select File, then Page Setup  
• Adjust left and right margins to 0.25  
• Click OK  

 If your printed version looks different than how it appears on your screen:  

• In Internet Explorer, select Tools, then Internet Options  

• Select the Advanced tab  
• Under Printing, make sure "Print background colors and images" is selected  
• Click OK                                                                                     

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Click here if you are still having trouble accessing any of the online resources