We have noticed that some students are sending us issues that relate to session links not being properly accessed due to broken links being transferred to the browser after clicking on the link in an email or Blackboard announcement/item.
The session/meeting links are usually very long and so they can sometimes break up into two lines in an email when viewed on a smaller monitor or a smaller window. Sometimes, when the student/moderator clicks on the link, it only transfers the first line to the browser’s address bar and returns the error that the server could not be reached. In such cases, we recommend that users trying to access sessions via such links copy the entire link from the email and then paste it into their browser’s address bar and then press the enter button on their keyboard to access the session. Simply clicking the link may not work in such cases.
Copying and pasting the link into the browser’s address bar is usually the best option for additional reasons. Sometimes, when you email links to your students, your email editor could append your mailbox address to all links in your email. We have noticed this sometimes happens when sending emails via USF’s mail servers. This means that the link appears in the text of the emaail as it should, but the link’s real address when clicked includes the address of your email box appended to the beginning of the link. When this happens, the browser tries to access your mailbox and since it does not have the password it throws an error. The user thinks that this is an Elluminate session problem, but it is not. The solution is to simply copy the entire link from the email and then paste it into their browser’s address bar and then press the enter button on their keyboard to access the session.