Below is a list of common problems that have been encountered by users accessing the COCC website or email services.
NOTE: As you will see below, many of the known problems are due to internet security software, pop-up blockers, and firewalls. As a result in addition to trying the ideas below as appropriate, we suggest that you review your settings for any such software and/or hardware you may have if you are encountering problems with our COCC website.
Norton's Internet Security software has a feature called Ad Blocking which by default examines web content and blocks information that it suspects may be advertising related. As a result any link with phrases like "banner" or "ad" in them, such as http://owa.ad.cocc.edu will not be displayed.
If you have Norton Internet Security we suggest that you disable the Ad Blocking feature for COCC.EDU web sites. For instructions on disabling Norton's Ad Blocking click here.
Similar behavior has also been seen by users with ZoneAlarm and Ad-Aware when their ad blocking feature are enabled. Without question other brands of ad blocking software can also cause similar problem. For information on reconfiguring ZoneAlarm, click here and read the Privacy protection chapter. For help with Ad-Aware, click here and read the Pop-ups section (7.2.4) in the Ad-Aware user's manual.
Email Messages and Other Content Not Displayed
Problems where email messages and/or other content such as toolbar buttons, etc are not displayed in COCC web email have been seen by users with Ad Blocking software installed.
Specific examples include Norton Internet Security, ZoneAlarm, and Ad-Aware. For information on reconfiguring ZoneAlarm, click here and read the Privacy protection chapter. For help with Ad-Aware, click here and read the Pop-ups section (7.2.4) in the Ad-Aware user's manual.
Email: New Mail Not Being Received
There are typically two causes for this problem.
- Some type of rule has been configured on the recipient mailbox which is causing messages to be deleted or moved to another folder. Information about rules is available here.
- Messages are not visible due to how by default OWA sorts email oldest to newest and only displays 25 messages per "page". To move between your pages of messages you must use the navigation buttons in the top right corner of the screen. More details are available here.
Outlook Web Access: Unable to Type in Message Body
Computers upon which Microsoft update 912945 or 912812 are installed, you may have to click one time in the compose message frame in Outlook Web Access before you edit text. As an alternative you may wish to consider using Mozilla's Firefox browser.
Outlook Web Access and Vista: Unable to Reply, Compose or Create New Items
Internet Explorer on Microsoft's Windows Vista is not yet supported by the version of Microsoft Outlook Web Access installed at COCC. (posted March 7, 2007)
COCC is currently reviewing a related Microsoft patch to ensure that the fix is safe. This testing is expected to be completed during Spring term. Once complete COCC's system will be upgraded so that Vista is supported. As an alternative you may wish to consider using Mozilla's Firefox browser.
In some situations pop-up blocking software has been seen to prevent the login box from being displayed when trying to connect to OWA. As a result users may see a page with the message "Error: Access is Denied." whenever they try to login, even though they were never asked for their username and password. If this sounds like what you are facing, try disabling any pop-up software and see if the problem is corrected. (Click for more help with allowing pop-ups on COCC websites)
Web Links Do Not Work
In some situations pop-up blocking software has been seen to prevent a web link (URL) from successfully opening a new browser window. As a result in most cases links will stay within the current browser window, but in some cases a new browser window was desireable. If this sounds like what you are facing, try disabling any pop-up software and see if the problem is corrected. (Click for more help with allowing pop-ups on COCC websites)
If the error message "there was a problem with my login request and to contact the system admin" appears you may be encountering a common problem that is caused using a bad link to the Blackboard login. If you have a saved shortcut for the Blackboard login you might be by passing the first page where you need to click the "Login" button first. Skipping this page has been known to cause this problem. In this case your second login attempt will typically be successful. We suggest that you use http://www.cocc.edu/login/blackboard/default.aspx as your Blackboard login favorite/shortcut as this is the best place to start from when accessing Blackboard.
More information and tips regarding using COCC's Blackboard system are available here.
Click here for more useful Blackboard related tips.
See COCC's Protecting Your Home Computer page for suggestions regarding your computer's security.
Click here if you did not find a description of the problem you are facing.