Problems?
Summary: We use simple pages, no flash, scripts, server-side includes or fancy stuff. Our pages load
fast and don't cause problems with most browsers. But if they do, here is some advice on making things work. Some of the
problems have long since been eliminated by newer browsers.
Links not working?
Select
this link to restart with the right address.
Can't download a Word file?
Some systems are set up not to download Word files. If you are trying to download the Word version of one of our
pamphlets, you may need to use the .pdf version instead. If a left click won't start the file downloading, right click on
the link and when the menu drops down select "Save Target As" then give the file a name and save it.
Printing problems or can't see a page?
A browser sometimes refuses to print a page. While this problem
is more prevalent with complex graphics pages than with ours, you can try selecting File then Print Preview and when the
page is displayed, select the Print button.
Is this our latest?
We update our web pages frequently. Our home page has almost always been changed within the last three days, as indicated
by the "last revised" date at the bottom.
Most web browsers use disk caching to speed up your second access to files you have seen before. The page is saved on
your hard disk or in memory of a machine. When you request it a second time by selecting a link you have used before, the
file may come from the cache rather than being downloaded from the Internet. Ideally the browser checks to see if the
page needs updating before it serves you a stale page. But not always. Most browsers will let you delete the cache, and
you can usually configure your browser to do that automatically. If the cache is being saved by your internet service
provider, we can't do much about that (see below). But usually you can see the latest page by clicking on the reload
symbol at the top.
Firefox
The circular arrow reload button at the top right sometimes works as it should and gets the new page. There is a
preference reached through Tools-Options. You have to search for Cache. In the Cached Web Content section the Clear Cache
button deletes old files. You can also check to box for "Override automatic cache management and set your cache to 0 MB
of space to prevent the problem from coming back.
Other Caches
In addition to your browser, some organizations or Internet Service Providers also cache or save web pages and supply
them to the next one of their subscribers who tries to browse them as a way of saving Internet bandwidth and making the
page load faster. AOL is a prime example. The page is saved on a disk or in memory of a machine within the organization.
This permits many hits to be served from one occasional download of the page by the organization's server. Sometimes we
have updated pages and had browsers complain that we have not. If your organization has a "proxy server" or another
server that caches files, or if you are with AOL or another ISP who uses caching, you may well be seeing stale pages.
Fast, efficient, but possibly stale. For some pages we do not update frequently, including this one, it will seldom
matter, but for our WhatsNew page it can make a big difference. All of our pages have the Latest Update date at the
bottom.
On some systems with caching, cached pages can be updated just by hitting your Reload or Refresh button. On others you
may have to ask your system administrator how to update the cache.
If you suspect you are being victimized by cache problems,
send us an email telling us which
page is in question and we will confirm the date of our latest revision.
Please note that this particular page is
not frequently revised!