Category: Athens

Athens authentication ‘network failure’ error message

Fay Harrison

We’re getting reports of intermittent problems when users are trying to logon to eResources using their Athens credentials. In particular, users are getting the following error messages:

Temporary network failure

….which after repeated attempts to re-enter their ID and password is followed by…

No return URL

If the user goes back to eSearch to start again, when they next try to access the eResource then no Athens prompt is presented and they are automatically taken straight in to the service. This suggests that the original Athens authentication attempt was successful, but had given the user an incorrect response message.

We’ve reported this to Athens, and we’ll give you a further update when we get confirmation of a fix. In the meantime, Athens authenticated services are still accessible, but users are likely to be confused by the misleading error messages.

Academia Portal Surveyors’ Channel

Keely Donald

We’d received reports that some users were experiencing problems trying to launch videos on the Surveyors’ Channel (accessed via Academia Portal), in particular getting error message “Sorry, that section of the video is not available to 7-Day Trial users”. After checking with in2itive, the service providers, it appeared that some users had been incorrectly assigned a status of ‘Trial User’ which had caused the access restriction. In2itive, have now fixed the problem and assigned the status of ‘Full User’ for all existing and for any newly created accounts. For information, authentication is via Athens.

EBSCOhost – new platform now live

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

The new EBSCOhost platform (v.2.0) is now live, offering a range of additional and enhanced services. All existing inbound and outbound LLR connections to all of the databases on the EBSCOhost platform will continue to work as before. A brief introduction to the service enhancements introduced in EBSCOhost 2.0 can be found by following the New features! link in the top-right hand corner of the EBSCOhost screen. The LLR databases delivered through the EBSCOhost platform are:

  • Abstracts in Social Gerontology
  • Academic Search Elite
  • Business Source Premier
  • EconLit
  • PsycARTICLES
  • PsycINFO
  • Regional Business News
  • SPORTDiscus
  • Textile Technology Index
  • Violence & Abuse Abstracts
  • Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts
  • International Bibliography of the Social Sciences

EDINA services – withdrawal of Athens authentication, 31 July 2008

Head of Discovery and Digital Futures

Most of the service providers migrating from Athens to Shibboleth based authentication are running the two systems in parallel for a transitional period. An exception to this is the services provided through the EDINA platform. The option for off-campus visitors to log in using an Athens username and password for EDINA hosted services with be withdrawn after 31 July 2008. The login options will then by by IP (on-campus) and by University username and password (Shibboleth – off-campus).

Links to the affected services in eSearch have now been updated to point off-campus visitors to the correct Shibboleth login screen. The databases in question are:

  • Digimap (on- and off-campus)
  • Film and Sound Online
  • Land, Life and Leisure