NYUHome FAQs & Troubleshooting

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is NYUHome?
• Who is eligible for NYUHome service?
• When can I activate my NYUHome service?
• What web browser and operating system should I use with NYUHome?
• Can I log into NYUHome when I'm traveling?
• What is the address of my personal web page?
• Can my NYU web page be found by search engines?
• Can I use my Palm Pilot or other PDA with NYUHome?
• How do I get my event listed on the NYUHome Events Channel?
• Does NYUHome provide access to a shell account?

Troubleshooting Tips

• Switch in IP Address Error Messages (AOL)
• Blank Screen When Opening Mail Program Window
• Setting Up Your Browser Correctly
• Clearing Your Disk Cache
• Session Expired Error Messages
• SMTP/Mail Relay Information & Error Messages
• Going Over Mail Quota
• Going Over File Quota
• Channel Error Messages
• Seeing Characters Instead of Text
• Missing Icons
• Incorrect Time Stamp on Mail
• Address Limit Error Messages
• Conflicts with WebWasher and other Ad-Filtering Software
• Blocking Spam
• Known Issues with NYUHome Web Mail/Messenger Express

Frequently Asked Questions

What is NYUHome?

NYUHome is a service that provides information and facilitates collaboration, interaction and communication for NYU faculty and staff members, and students a degree or diploma programs, both in the United States and overseas. It is a portal to many web-based services and tools, including email, Albert, Blackboard, NYU Forums, classes, research tools and more. For more information, see the NYUHome page, or log into NYUHome with your NetID and password at http://home.nyu.edu.

Who is eligible for NYUHome service?

Current faculty, administrators, staff, and students in degree programs are eligible for the NYUHome service.

Emeritus faculty members or faculty members who will be retiring are also eligible for NYUHome.

In addition, the NYU Office of Alumni Relations has teamed with ITS to extend access to NYUHome and email for graduating students and recent alumni. Students who graduated on or after January 2001 will continue to have access to NYUHome and NYU email indefinitely, as long as the account continues to show activity at least once every six months. See the Accounts section of this site for details.

If you're leaving NYU from a non-degree program, or are interrupting your studies, your NYUHome account will expire at the end of the semester. In these cases, if you set up mail forwarding to another email account, NYUHome will continue to forward your mail for six months more.

Alumni email forwarding services are also available. See the Alumni Office's web pages about Lifetime Email Forwarding for details.

Note: As of February 2, 2004, graduates no longer have access to the NYU DIAL modem service. If you use NYU DIAL service to connect to the Internet prior to your graduation, you will need to obtain a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP)—such as Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner, or another—for continued Internet connectivity. In addition, if your computer is set up to automatically use NYU DIAL service for phone-and-modem connections to the Internet, you will need to reconfigure your software according to your ISP's instructions.

When can I activate my NYUHome service?

If you are an enrolled student in a degree program or a current faculty or staff member, you can activate your NYUHome service at any time by going to the ITS Start Page at http://start.nyu.edu. You will need to know your NYU NetID, which appears on the back of your NYUCard.

Incoming students, as well as new faculty and staff, may activate their NYUHome service as soon as they receive their NYU NetIDs, or when they arrive at the start of the semester.

For information on how to set up your computer for use with NYU-NET, NYU's campus network, see the Get Connected page.

What web browser and operating system should I use with NYUHome?

Operating System Recommendations

To fully benefit from your NYUHome service, your computer should be running the Windows 2000 or XP operating system, or, for Macintosh, OS X 10.2.8 or higher.

Browser Recommendations

For Windows, we suggest using the latest version of the Netscape or Internet Explorer web browsers.

For Macintosh OS X, we suggest using any of the Mozilla-based browsers (such as Mozilla or Firefox) or the latest version of Netscape.

Important Notes

• Problems have been found when using Safari (1.2.2) with the Panther OS (10.3.4). Please see the Email FAQs page for details.
• OmniWeb is not supported for use with NYUHome mail.
• AOL's browser is NOT compatible with NYUHome! However, if you ordinarily connect to the Internet with AOL, you can continue to do so with NYUHome, but you must use a different web browser. See the Email Configuration page for instructions.

Can I log into NYUHome when I'm traveling?

Yes! You can connect to NYUHome using any compatible web browser and computer connected to the Internet. Go to the login screen at http://home.nyu.edu and log in using your NYU NetID and password as you normally do.

Make sure you type in the correct URL! There is no "www" in front of home.nyu.edu. And, for best results, make sure that you're running the latest version of the web browser and that you've checked your browser settings against our recommended settings listed below.

What is the address of my personal web page?

Your web page address is:

http://homepages.nyu.edu/~NetID/

where "NetID" is replaced with your personal NYU NetID, as printed on the back of your NYUCard. For example, if your NetID was aqe123, your web page address would be http://homepages.nyu.edu/~aqe123. Please note that the address is NOT http://home.nyu.edu/~NetID/.

More information on how to create and modify your web page is available in our Your NYUHome Web Page section.

Can my NYU web page be found by search engines?

Yes. Search engines can index your NYU web page, but you must specifically submit your URL to the search engine for indexing (for example, the Google submission page is at www.google.com/addurl/).

As described above, your NYUHome web page address is:

http://homepages.nyu.edu/~NetID

Please note, the main NYU search engine does not index pages on the homepages.nyu.edu web server.

Can I use my Palm Pilot or another Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) with NYUHome?

At this time, there are no Palm Query Applications (PQA) tailored specifically for NYUHome. However, there are many alternative wireless email applications available. Visit www.palmsource.com/applications/ for more information.

How do I get my event listed on the NYUHome Events Channel?

The listings in the NYUHome Events Channel are taken from the main NYU Events Calendar. Only events appropriate for posting to the general NYU community are listed on this calendar.

Most schools at NYU have a calendar administrator who may post a school-specific event on your behalf (pending approval) to the school's calendar and/or the main NYU calendar. To see the list of administrators, visit the NYU Calendar Administrator Information website.

If you have any questions about the main Events calendar, please write to events@nyu.edu. If you have a student-organization or club event that you wish to post, you should ask the Office of Student Activities to set your club up with an event calendar: osa@nyu.edu.

Does NYUHome provide access to a shell account?

NYUHome does not provide a shell. If you require a UNIX shell account for research-related purposes, you may apply for a special account which must be sponsored by your faculty advisor. If you are in a class which requires that you have a shell account, your instructor will submit the proper forms. For more information, visit the ITS Accounts site or contact ITS Client Services at 212-998-3035.

Troubleshooting Tips

Using AOL to connect to the Internet, I receive an error message in NYUHome saying that session authentication has failed due to a switch in my IP address. What's wrong?

When you use AOL to connect to the Internet, your machine is assigned a temporary IP address for the duration of your connection to AOL. NYUHome uses your IP address as one part of authenticating your session. AOL uses a proxy server to handle all secure connections, and because of this, your IP address changes when you log into NYUHome. When your IP address changes, NYUHome can no longer verify your identity. This can also happen with other commercial Internet Service Providers, or if you are connecting to the Internet through a non-NYU office network.

In most cases, this problem can be avoided by updating your web browser preferences so that you are using the NYU proxy server. This way, you authenticate your session, verifying your NYU affiliation before you connect to the NYUHome login page. However, if you are connecting through a non-NYU office network, you may not be able to modify your network configuration.

For instructions on how to set up your browser to use NYU-NET proxy server, please see www.nyu.edu/its/nyunet/proxy/. Also see this important note for AOL users.

When I open my NYUHome mail, I get a blank screen. Sometimes error messages pop up. What's wrong?

If you get a blank screen when the NYUHome web mail program opens, hit the F5 key to refresh the screen. On a Macintosh computer, you can also use the keyboard combination of Command+R (the Apple key) to refresh the screen.

If you receive JavaScript errors when the page opens, click through them and then refresh the screen. Clearing your disk cache is also recommended.

How do I set up my browser for NYUHome? I'm getting a "Your Session has Expired" error message.

For a successful login to NYUHome, it is imperative that you configure your browser as described below. Also, see below for information about the session expiration error and above for important notes about browser requirements and known issues.

• Netscape Communicator (Version 7)
• Internet Explorer (PC version 5.5)
• Safari (Macintosh OS X version 1.2.2

  Note: Problems have been found when using Safari (1.2.2) with the Panther OS (10.3.4). Macintosh OS X clients are encouraged to use any of the Mozilla-based browsers, such as Mozilla or Firefox, or the latest version of Netscape.

Netscape 7

Choose the Edit menu and select Preferences. From the left-hand Category selections:

1. Select the option for Appearance.
   • Choose Colors. Make sure the option for Always use my colors, overriding page/document, is NOT selected. If this option is selected, your browser will not display the NYUHome screen correctly.
2. Select the option for Advanced.
   • Make sure that you have selected Enable JavaScript and Enable JavaScript for Mail and News.
   • In the Cookies section, make sure that you have selected Accept all cookies.
3. Click OK to save your changes.

Internet Explorer 5 (for PC)

Choose the Tools menu and select Internet Options.

1. Select the General tab.
   • Click on the Accessibility button. Make sure that nothing is checked off under the Formatting section or under the User style sheet section. If any of these options are checked off, your NYUHome screen will not load properly.
2. Select the Security tab.
   • In the Security level for this zone section, make sure that you have adjusted the slider level to Medium. This will allow your account to operate successfully and securely.
   • Click on the Custom Level button. Scroll down to the option for Cookies. Under the choice for Allow per-session cookies (not stored), select the radio button for Prompt. This will ensure that you are prompted to receive the cookie necessary for enabling NYUHome. If you do not wish to be prompted to accept each cookie for NYUHome, you can select the radio button for Enable.
   • Scroll down to the option for Scripting. Under the choice for Scripting of Java applets, select Enable.
3. Select the Advanced tab.
   • Scroll down to the option for Multimedia. Make sure that you have put a check mark in the box next to Show pictures.
4. Click OK to save your changes.

Safari 1.2.2

Choose the Safari menu and select Preferences.

1. From the top menu bar, select the option for Appearance.
   • Make sure the setting for "Default Encoding" is set to Western (ISO Latin 1).
2. From the top menu bar, select the option for Security.
   • Under the Web Content section, make sure to put a checkmark in the boxes next to the options Enable plug-ins, Enable Java, Enable JavaScript.
   • Under the Accept Cookies section, make sure the button next to Always is selected.
3. From the top menu bar, select the option for Advanced.
   • Next to the option for Style Sheet, leave the default option for None Selected. If you select a style sheet, your browser will not display the NYUHome screen correctly.

I've made changes to my NYUHome screen, but it still looks the same.

You may need to clear your disk cache. The disk cache holds frequently-accessed web pages. The browser checks the modification date and time of pages in the cache against the actual web page. If they are the same, the page in the cache will be used. This is fine for most pages, however, if you do not see appropriate changes to the web page, try emptying the cache and loading the page again.

For instructions on how to empty your disc cache and delete cookies in a variety of popular browsers, see www.nyu.edu/its/faq/cache.html#howto.

I can't log into NYUHome—I'm getting a "Your Session has Expired" error message.

There are many reasons why you may get a "Your Session Has Expired" message, however, the four most common are:

1. You're at a computer with many users or you're on your home computer and you failed to log out from your previous NYUHome session.

   If you're on a public computer where a previous person was using NYUHome and they failed to log out of their NYUHome session, and then you try to log in, you may be using a cached version of their NYUHome session. To ensure that you log in "fresh", you should refresh the browser screen to log in again. However, you also may need to clear the disk cache to remove the saved files and delete cookies. Often, you will need to close and restart the browser to eliminate the files. For more information on how to clear the disk cache and delete cookies, see the previous question.

2. You're at work, connecting through your office/corporate network which is using a firewall or proxy server.

   NYUHome uses your IP address as one part of authenticating your session. Your office network may use a firewall or a proxy server to handle all secure connections. Because of this, your IP address changes when you log into NYUHome. When your IP address changes, NYUHome can no longer verify your identity.

   
   

   In most cases, this problem can be avoided by updating your web browser preferences so that you are using the NYU proxy server. This way, you authenticate your session, verifying your NYU affiliation before you connect to the NYUHome login page. However, it is possible that you may not be able to modify your network configuration.

   
   

   For instructions on how to set up your browser to use the NYU proxy server, see www.nyu.edu/its/nyunet/proxy/.

3. Your session may have "timed-out".

   Currently our log-in time limit is 10 minutes. Therefore, if your session has been idle for over 10 minutes, you will need to log in again.

4. You are connected to the Internet using a commercial Internet Service Provider and your web browser has been pre-configured to use a proxy server.
   

   Many ISP's provide their customers with web browsers pre-configured to use their service's proxy server. If this is the case, you will need to remove the proxy settings from your web browser preferences and change them to use a direct Internet connection or set up your browser to use NYU's proxy server.

   
   

   For information on how to set up your web browser to use NYU's proxy server, see www.nyu.edu/its/nyunet/proxy/.

SMTP/Mail Relay Information & Error Messages

What is an SMTP server?

SMTP actually stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. It's similar to choosing which mailbox or post office to use when dropping off outgoing snail mail. It makes sense to drop it off at the closest one. In this context, the ISP you are using to make the Internet connection via your modem will have the closest mailbox. If you establish your network connection through a commercial ISP and then configure Eudora, Outlook Express or Netscape Messenger to send outgoing mail through NYU, it's as if you were sending out your travel log and "Wish You Were Here" postcards with a postmark from your hometown, rather than your vacation spot.

How should I configure my mail program to send out e-mail when I am connecting to the Internet through a commercial ISP?

Your ISP will recommend which SMTP server to use. Find out the SMTP server's name from your ISP and enter this name into your mail program settings. This information is usually spelled out in the ISP's documentation or online FAQ.

Some of the more commonly used ISP SMTP servers are:

• lapietra.nyu.florence.it [for locations on NYU's La Pietra Estate]
• smtp.earthlink.net
• smtp.verizon.net
• smtp-server.nyc.rr.com
• smtp.rcn.com

I tried to send an email to someone and I got an error message that said "SMTP Error." What is that?

SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. It is the mechanism through which your mail is sent out to your recipient.

However, NYUHome's Messenger Express mail program can detect if there is a problem with the recipient's email address formation. That is, if one or more of the addresses in your recipient list is invalid or incorrectly configured. For example, you've put in an NYU NetID without an "@nyu.edu" at the end, and that person doesn't have an NYUHome account, or, you didn't put in the domain name (yahoo.com, aol.com etc.) after the person's username.

Note: If you address email in Messenger Express to aqe123 or jenny, the Messenger Express mail program will automatically substitute aqe123@nyu.edu and jenny@nyu.edu. If the address is invalid, an "SMTP Error" message will result. In general, make sure you use well-formed, valid email addresses with fully qualified domain names—for example:

• SteveJobs@aol.com
• aqe123@nyu.edu
• Jenny8675309@yahoo.com

I am using a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP) configured with my NYUHome settings. I can receive my messages, but I cannot send any out. I'm getting an error message that says, "Relay operation rejected".

Make sure that your SMTP server is set to the SMTP server for the ISP that you're using to connect to the Internet. Contact your ISP for this information.

NYUHome is not configured to act as an email drop-off point for other ISPs. Due to some networking and security concerns, folks connecting to elsewhere on the Internet (such as through a commercial ISP) cannot designate NYU machines (such as smtp.nyu.edu) as their SMTP server. Rather, NYU's SMTP server is limited to clients who are connecting to the Internet directly using NYU-NET—connections from your NYU office computer, your dorm room computer or your NYU DIAL account. Following is a graphic presentation of the above information:

Successful e-mail delivery above right; Return to Sender at lower left. (Graphic elements developed at Northwestern University; modified for use in this diagram with NU's permission.)

How can I be over my NYUHome mail quota? I have no messages in my Inbox!

Your NYUHome mail quota includes all the mail in your folders. This includes your Sent mail folder, your Trash folder, and if you've activated spam filtering, your Spam folder. You can immediately reduce your quota by removing any unnecessary mail from your Sent mail folder. If you're forwarding your NYUHome mail to another email account and leaving a copy of each mail message in your account, you can easily put yourself over your mail quota. Make sure to monitor your quota and delete messages as needed.

Even if you have deleted read or old sent mail messages by moving them in to your Trash folder, you need to still expunge them from the NYUHome mail server, or they will remain in your account and continue to take up valuable space.

Note: Please be aware that all messages older than 7 days are automatically deleted from the Trash folder on a regular basis. As well, mail messages that collect in the Spam folder are automatically deleted every 30 days. Review our instructions on deleting mail for more information on how to configure your mail deletion settings.

I'm trying to upload a file, but I cannot. Am I over quota?

You have a limit of 50MB for your NYUHome file storage. This includes the files within your web page directory (/public_html). If you have exceeded your 50MB quota, you will not be able modify your files using the built-in NYUHome File Manager. You must use a Secure File Transfer Program (SFTP) to connect to the server and remove any unnecessary files.

ITS provides free SFTP programs (Fugu and Fetch for Macintosh, WinSCP for Windows) and other software at http://software.nyu.edu, also accessible via the Software channel in the "Ask ITS" area of NYUHome. (Please note that some SFTP clients offer both FTP and SFTP—be sure to select SFTP if you are given a choice.) The host name to connect to is homepages.nyu.edu. Use your NetID and password to verify your identity. You will be brought to your home directory. If you want to reach your web page files, switch into your /public_html directory.

If you cannot connect to your account using SFTP, please notify ITS at home@nyu.edu. Include a list of the files you wish to have deleted and we will remove them for you.

Why does an NYUHome channel say "temporarily unavailable"?

If channel content becomes temporarily unavailable, for example, we lose our feed from The New York Times, an error message will be displayed in the channel until service is restored. If NYUHome email is temporarily unavailable, you can check the ITS Status page at www.nyu.edu/its/status/ for more information.

Sometimes I see funny non-text characters in my drop-down menus or mail windows. How can I fix this?

Check to see that your web browser's language encoding option is set to the correct encoding scheme. It should be configured for the Western character set.

Internet Explorer (PC)

Go to the View menu and select Encoding. Choose Western European (Windows). Make sure that you have de-selected the Autoselect option.

Safari (Macintosh)

Choose the Safari menu and select Preferences. From the top menu bar, select the option for Appearance. Make sure the setting for "Default Encoding" is set to Western (ISO Latin 1).

Firefox (Macintosh and PC)

Go to the View menu and select Character Encoding. Choose Western (ISO-8859-1).

It is possible, especially on public terminals, to find that the character set has been switched to a different language encoding scheme. Once you've updated the character set, clear your browser's disk cache (for instructions, see Clearing Your Disk Cache), and restart your browser.

Sometimes when I open a mail message, the icons in the top menu bar are missing. How can I fix this?

Missing icons often indicate lack of memory. Close any unnecessary browser windows, shut down other applications, and reload the window. You might also clear your disk cache (for instructions, see Clearing Your Disk Cache) and restart the browser. You may wish to allocate more memory for the browser as well (see your computer's help documentation for instructions).

I sent an email message at 4:00 p.m., but the message says it was sent at 1 p.m. Why does this sort of thing happen?

NYUHome mail takes its time stamp from your computer. If your local machine's time settings are incorrect, your mail messages will be affected. Check to see that your computer has the correct time and time zone set (Eastern vs. Pacific vs. Central, etc.).

I am trying to send out a mail message to a large group of people, but I'm getting an error message about a "character limit".

Many browsers have a limit to the amount of characters on one line of text. If the addresses are in the "To:" line one after another, your browser may interpret the addresses as one long line of text and prohibit you from sending the mail.

When sending mail to multiple addresses, we suggest creating a group in your Address Book to avoid the error messages. See Creating an Address Group for instructions.

If you are a faculty member, staff member or student club leader who sends out multiple mailings to a specific group of individuals, it may be beneficial for you to apply for an NYU Forum. Read more about NYU Forums at www.nyu.edu/its/forums/.

I started using an ad-filtering software program to remove the pop-up ads, but now my NYUHome screen seems to be missing tabs or I can't log in at all!

Certain content filtering software products like WebWasher or AdSubtract Pro, for example, will conflict with the display of your NYUHome screen. With WebWasher, make sure to disable the Referrer Filter setting for best results. Note: If you disable JavaScript in your browser settings, you will also have trouble accessing NYUHome.

What can I do to reduce the amount of spam I get?

ITS cannot block unwanted or unsolicited e-mails as our efforts would inevitably block some legitimate messages as well as messages that may be of interest to some in the NYU community. However, you may take advantage of our spam filtering service with the built-in NYUHome mail client, Messenger Express, as well as with desktop mail clients such as Eudora, Macintosh Mail (for OSX), Netscape Messenger, Outlook (PC only) and Outlook Express (Macintosh only). Please see the spam filtering for NYUHome web mail instructions and Spam Filtering at NYU for more information.

Known Issues with NYUHome Web Mail/Messenger Express

The built-in NYUHome mail program, Messenger Express, may produce errors when using certain browser/OS combinations. Here is a list of currently known issues:

Page last reviewed: August 19, 2008