New ejournals list – firewall settings

By Catherine Sharp, on 11 September 2008

16 Responses to “New ejournals list – firewall settings”

• 1
  

  Linda wrote on 15 September 2008:
  

  This is a terrible change, I am not even able to load the page – dont know how to change firewall. Could you please set the option to use the old system, at least I could log in OK.

• 2
  

  Catherine Sharp wrote on 16 September 2008:
  

  Dear Linda,
  I am sorry to hear that you are having problems accessing the new list. I am afraid that the old list is no longer available. Even if it were possible to make it available again, it will rapidly be out of date (changes and additions are made on a daily basis, and it is neither possible nor advisable, given the inevitable inconsistency that would result, to maintain two lists.)
  I understand that it’s very frustrating to have to change the configuration of your home applications, especially if you haven’t done this before, but it should be fairly straightforward. You’ll then be able to take advantage of the improvements that we’ve made to the list (see the comments that I’ve made in response to other users’ thoughts on the “New ejournals list” post.) In the post above, I have tried to provide as much general guidance as possible to enable users with a variety of different firewalls, and firewall settings, to change their home configurations so that they can access the list. You should have some documentation relating to your firewall that you can consult, and probably a “help” option on-screen, but if you get in touch again and give me more specific details – in particular, which firewall you’re using and what error messages you see (if any) – I’ll try to advise you. Making the change should then not be too difficult.
  If you are in need of a specific journal urgently, I would suggest searching the Library catalogue for it, but please do contact me again – either on this blog or by e-mail to ejournals@ucl.ac.uk – so that we can solve the problem of your access to the list.
  Apologies for the inconvenience, and best wishes,
  Catherine

• 3
  

  K Rietzler wrote on 19 September 2008:
  

  Also, the eror message I’m getting is “Invalid UserID and/or Password. Please re-enter.”

• 4
  

  Catherine Sharp wrote on 19 September 2008:
  

  Hi Katharina,

  There is an authentication problem with MetaLib this morning that’s completely unrelated to the new ejournals list. This surfaced yesterday. I think your problems are all related to this (and not to firewall issues; your firewall wasn’t causing difficulties before, so you shouldn’t need to worry about that.) You should still be able to log in to the ejournals list (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/ejournal) and the databases list (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/database), but you won’t be able to log in to MetaLib (http://metalib-a.lib.ucl.ac.uk:8331/V) and cross-search databases or view ejournals that you’ve saved to your list of favourites.

  If you need to log in to MetaLib and cross-search databases, you should use WTS on the Web (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/is/wts/web/index.htm) and then open a web browser on that service and click on the “Guest” link on the MetaLib homepage (http://metalib-a.lib.ucl.ac.uk:8331/V.) This will give you access to the MetaLib CrossSearch for most resources, as if you were on campus, without having to login.

  I hope that this helps; do get back to me if you have any more questions.

  Best wishes,
  Catherine

• 5
  

  K Rietzler wrote on 19 September 2008:
  

  Oh dear – sorry, wrong culprit!
  Thanks for the advice on accessing resources!

• 6
  

  Rebekah Higgitt wrote on 7 October 2008:
  

  I am trying to access the journals remotely and got IT to change and then to completely remove the firewall and it still doesn’t work.

  Error Code 10061: Connection refused
  Background: The server you are attempting to access has refused the connection with the gateway. This usually results from trying to connect to a service that is inactive on the server.

  What can I do? I can’t get the information about electronic journals from the catalogue either.

• 7
  

  Tim Colbourn wrote on 7 October 2008:
  

  I am using F-Secure and have set a Firewall exception for metalib-a.lib.ucl.ac.uk under the ‘Rules’ of the firewall. I have set the services to allow as ‘all IP traffic’ to and from this DNS as I didn’t know which other service to select, and assumed that this covers all of them. However I still can’t access the new journals service.
  (I was not allowed to add DNS with numbers in such as metalib-a.lib.ucl.ac.uk:9003).

  It says that the service is timed out waiting for the server to respond, even though it sometimes doesn’t seem to give it a chance.

  I can’t really use the WTS service as I have a very slow internet connection (about 50kbps) because I am based in Malawi. Please can you help – I am trying to start a literature review for my PhD so need this service (I could use the old service just fine).

• 8
  

  Anuoluwapo Ladega wrote on 8 October 2008:
  

  Hello, I am a postgraduate student in the law faculty and I’m having problems accessing the electronic journals in the UCL library. Access is always denied and I terribly need the access for my reasearch. Who do I contact?

• 9
  

  Catherine Sharp wrote on 9 October 2008:
  

  Dear Rebekah,
  As you say that you can’t get information about ejournals from the Library catalogue, either, I’m wondering whether the problem is to do with your browser settings rather than to do with your institutional firewall. Would you try using a different browser (Firefox, for example, if you’re using Internet Explorer) and see whether this makes any difference? I’d advise you to ask your IS colleagues to check whether your browser configuration is interfering with your access to the ejournals list and the Library catalogue.
  Having said that, if you are able to search the library catalogue, but the error is occurring when you click an SFX button, then the problem might still be to do wth the firewall there. Again, I think that your IS team alone is in a position to identify any problems with the firewall configuration.
  In the meantime, though, I’d suggest that you use WTS on the web – http://www.ucl.ac.uk/is/wts/web/ – to access the list and/or the Library catalogue. Log in to that service, then open up a web browser within it and navigate to the ejournals list. You will be treated as if you are on-site at UCL, so the institutional firewall there shouldn’t affect your access.
  I hope that this helps.
  Best wishes,
  Catherine

• 10
  

  Catherine Sharp wrote on 9 October 2008:
  

  Dear Tim,
  I have consulted my IS colleagues about the problems that you’ve been having, and they have tested access to the ejournals list on a machine that’s running F-Secure – and have been able to access the pages without a problem. F-Secure is set by default to allow any outbound traffic (you can access any website you want); it’s inbound traffic that it’s designed to catch. This suggests that it’s not F-Secure that’s causing the problem. If you want to confirm this, you could switch F-Secure off and try again; but please do switch it back on again immediately after the test.
  We wonder whether you’re running another firewall product that has different settings, or whether your browser settings are causing the problem. I’d suggest that you try using a different browser, if possible, but let me know if you need any more advice about this.
  Best wishes,
  Catherine

• 11
  

  Catherine Sharp wrote on 9 October 2008:
  

  Hi Anuoluwapo,
  Sorry to hear that you’ve been having problems with ejournals. You don’t mention exactly what error messages you’re seeing, or whether the difficulty seems to be accessing the ejournals list itself, or accessing the journals once you’ve clicked on a title or SFX button. Please would you reply to me via ejournals@ucl.ac.uk (more appropriate than this blog because we might have to have to discuss the specifics of your individual setup) and give me as much detail as you can about the problem?
  Thanks,
  Catherine

• 12
  

  Tim Colbourn wrote on 14 October 2008:
  

  Thanks for your advice Cathrine,

  The problem seems to have gone away by itself though! …I have just managed to download a journal article (even though it did take 20mins of connecting and downloading! due to the slow internet in Malawi)

  Tim

• 13
  

  Thushan de Silva wrote on 16 October 2008:
  

  Hi, I’m based at the MRC laboratories in the Gambia and am having problems connecting. Our IT department has asked for the IP address of the server I need to connect to to access the electronic library (in addition to the firewall settings info I have provided them from your webpage). Is this necessary? If so, would it please be possible to have it.
  regards
  Thushan

• 14
  

  Catherine Sharp wrote on 17 October 2008:
  

  Dear Thushan,

  You shouldn’t need the server address: its name, metalib-a.lib.ucl.ac.uk, should be sufficient.

  Do let me know if you need anything more.

  Best wishes,
  Catherine

• 15
  

  Raul Fuentes wrote on 23 October 2008:
  

  I get the following error when trying to access electronic journals remotely:

  ———————————————————————————————————————

  Network Error (tcp_error)

  A communication error occurred: “Operation timed out”
  The Web Server may be down, too busy, or experiencing other problems preventing it from responding to requests. You may wish to try again at a later time.

  For assistance, contact your network support team.

  —————————————————————————————————————————————————–

  I have tried a few days in a row now and nothing changes.

  How could I sort it out?

  Thanks.

  Raul

• 16
  

  Catherine Sharp wrote on 27 October 2008:
  

  Hi Raul,
  First of all, apologies for the slightly late reply to your question.
  As far as we’re aware, there haven’t been any server problems, so we’ll need a little more information in order to make a diagnosis. Have you in fact been able to access the new ejournals list at all (since it changed in September)? Would you let me know exactly when this error appears – is it when you click on the “Access UCL’s ejournals service” link on this page: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Library/ejournal/index.shtml? If not, would you describe exactly when it does occur?
  Would you try using a different browser (Firefox, for example, if you’re using Internet Explorer) and let me know whether this is any more successful? Would you also try clearing your cache (in Internet Explorer, for example, you can do this via Tools > Internet Options: click “delete cookies” and “delete files”.) Let me know whether this makes any difference; this will help me to identify the problem.
  Thanks, and best wishes,
  Catherine

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