Tech Support Notes & Questionnaire

Remember - you can always request your files to be sent by e-mail instead of downloading them from the online system and you still get easy access to the member website :)

"Email transmits so fast that we are led to believe it is also reliable. But between spam filters and imperfect humans, email delivery can and does fail. As teachers we must be especially aware of this potential loss." - The Web Guru Handbook

IE is a buggy, insecure, dangerous piece of software, and the source of many of the headaches that security pros have to endure (I'm not even going to go into its poor support for Web standards; let that be a rant for another day). Yes, I know Microsoft patches holes as they are found. Great. But far too many are found...We're security pros, and we know the score. It's time. It's time to tell our users, our clients, our associates, our families, and our friends to abandon Internet Explorer. - Scott Granneman teaches at Washington University in St. Louis, consults for WebSanity, and writes for SecurityFocus and Linux Magazine. His latest book, Linux Phrasebook, is in stores now.

"Troubleshooting website connection problems can be a challenge because there are so many possible causes." - Microsoft

I've included the quotes above to highlight the fact that since we made the website transition last year, 99% of the problems students are encountering are universal, user-end or Internet related and are not due to any fault of The Avicenna Institute, the student website or to me. I provide tech support as a courtesy to students, however, I am not the source of the problems. Additionally, I find that most tech support problems usually hinge on one simple solution. So what may take you hours to "try to figure out" may actually be a simple problem like trying to login to the wrong page or not using a CAPs with your password or something simple. So please ask me for help before you spend too much time trying things. It may seem like a big problem but it usually has a five minute solution. I've been doing this for more than a year now and I have found that to be true 80% of the time.

Above all, that I want to be here to help. I do not want to discourage you from calling me or e-mailing me. All I ask is that you read this and fill out the form. You don't even have to try any of the solutions below the form if they seem confusing or you don't understand them. Above all I want you to get your problem solved quickly - sometimes a phone call to me (319-573-3513) is the quickest way to do that. What I am saying in this introduction is not to discourage you, but rather to remind people that I am the helper and not the cause of the problem. My intention here is to save you time, frustration and anger.  It may further help to alleviate any misunderstand by explaining that the reason I provide such good tech support is not because I hold some secret knowledge of my own website or because there is something wrong with my website but because I have spent many hours of being on your end of the tech support with other websites.

There are a large number of problems on the Internet nowadays and I know how confusing they can be and it is my way of saying "Thank you for trying something new by using online materials - it is a new experience for many people and I appreciate you trying out this new experience". Even webmasters have chat help rooms nowadays and people like me who work online all day have trouble on a daily basis so don't feel frustrated if you encounter a "bump" and you (or your spouse that is helping) are "good with computers". I am too and am often stumped by something that turns out to be simple in the end. And the rules keep changing every month so it is hard to keep up! I try my best and I am here to help you too.

Please fill out the form below. And if you get anxious waiting (like I do LOL) I have included some extra tips 

Can't Wait for an Answer?

Me neither! I'm not a very good "waiter" - so here are some ideas while you are waiting for me to respond to you:

1. Consider contacting the help desk directly. Eofficehours has a help desk, your security program, Yahoogroups and your web browser all have help pages.

2. Please update all the browsers, add-ons, and everything on your computer frequently. Many high-end websites (banks, Google, etc...) will continue to work even with an old system. However, even the best websites will start to experience glitches if you don't frequently update all the features of your computer.

3. Use the highest speed Internet you can. If your Internet is having a slow day it will not connect to some websites. Especially those with pictures or video.

4. Please visit the login page at www.TheAvicennaInstitute.com and read all the instructions there carefully. Please make sure you try to log in to the correct page. If you visit www.Eofficehours.com to login please login on the student TAB and not the instructor TAB. Please remember that your password is case sensitive. Please keep track of your password. I do not have access to most lost passwords, especially if you changed it. Thus, if you write to me for your password I have to create a new account for you.

5. Don't have your security set too high. You need to be accepting cookies, and have it set at medium (at the most). If a website you know (one of mine) says the security certificate is expired just ask the security program to accept it anyway - it is SAFE and this is a common problem - even on some of the biggest websites. This happened to me on the Adobe website a couple weeks ago - and they hire full time webmasters! Make sure you enter the website name in the security program so it will ALWAYS accept it and not just once.

6. Use Firefox or another good browser - not Internet Explorer. Make sure you have the latest version installed.