I have considered Jim's and Mark,s suggestions. Thanks guys. 

I HAVE directed the student to the simple URL without adm/role.  It seems to
me that this does not matter, but I could be wrong.
:-)
In the past, switching to a new browser has generally remedied the
individual's situation.  But, I have always been bothered that I could not
necessarily identify what IE config (or other) caused their problem.	

The answer is indeed "42".

Parasiteware is always a suspect.  Since I try to keep my own computers free
of these, I may be really out-of-touch with the way in which they manifest
themselves.
However, I thought that they usually divert the session to some annoying
page, promoting something, rather than a simple message that the address
could not be found or is "forbidden".  I suppose that a combination of a
pest with some security settings could produce the latter.

So, I usually find that, after I send the student a message which contains a
condensed version of the various help suggestions about pests, browsers
etc., that I never hear back from the student, despite specifically
requesting them to reply.  Even when they do reply their comments are not
usually helpful.
Occasionally I get a "tough nut" who says that no suggestions work for them.

Anyway, it's good to hear your current perespectives, since it is a changing
landscape.

Cheers,
Ray
 

On Fri, 15 Sep 2006 06:32:19 -0400 (EDT) lon-capa-admin@mail.lon-capa.org
wrote:
> Ray,
> 
> Is this perhaps the spyware issue? I get a few each quarter that have 
> mucked up their system enough they can't login, but these people generally

> get to the login page. On the flip side, I would direct them to the 
> machine, but not adm/roles.
> 
> Mark
> 
> On Thu, 14 Sep 2006, batchelo@sfu.ca wrote:
> 
> > I get the occasional message from students who say they can't access the
> > login page on our servers. Their messages usually indicate that they can
> > browse other internet sites and even ones on our campus, but that
> when they
> > try to go to one of the loncapa servers they get a screen something like
> >
> > "We can't find	"http://lewis.chem.sfu.ca/adm/roles"
> > Error -  Request forbidden"
> >
> > Anybody know what might be the most likely cause/solution for their
> problem?
> >
> > Local firewall or security settings?
> > Something obvious that I am overlooking?
> > _______________________________________________
> > LON-CAPA-admin mailing list
> > LON-CAPA-admin@mail.lon-capa.org
> > http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-admin
> >
> 
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Mark Lucas					email: lucasm@ohiou.edu
> 252D Clippinger Lab				phone: (740)597-2984
> Department of Physics and Astronomy		  fax:	 (740)593-0433
> Ohio University
> Athens, OH 45701
> _______________________________________________
> LON-CAPA-admin mailing list
> LON-CAPA-admin@mail.lon-capa.org
> http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-admin
> 


Ray Batchelor
Senior Lecturer
Department of Chemistry
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, BC
V5A 1S6

604-291-5635

