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Tech Support

Web Browser

To use the Blackboard software and navigate online course material successfully, your browser must meet our minimum requirements (e.g., Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher for PC, Safari 1.2 for Mac).

Finding out which version is installed on your computer

For Internet Explorer (IE)

  • Start the Internet Explorer browser.
  • Select Help on the menu bar.
  • Click About Internet Explorer. A small window will open indicating the browser version.
  • Check the microsoft IE Web Site to see what the latest version is (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ ). Download the newest version if you need it.

For Safari

  • Start the Safari browser.
  • Select Safari on the menu bar.
  • Click About Safari . A small window will open indicating the browser version.
  • Check Apple's Web Site to see what the latest version is (http://www.apple.com/downloads). Download the newest version if you need it.

For Firefox

  • Start the Firefox browser.
  • Select Help on the menu bar.
  • Click About Mozilla Firefox. A small window will open indicating the browser version.
  • Check the Mozilla Web Site to see what the latest version is (http://www.mozilla.com). Download the newest version if you need it. Also, you can choose Check for Updates in the Help menu to update to the most recent version.

Configuring your browser

To work properly with your Internet-supported courses, your browser must be configured (set up) so that Java and JavaScript are enabled and your software will accept cookies. This is generally already set up for you unless you have changed your default settings.

Configuring your Web browser

For Internet Explorer (IE)

  • Select Tools on the menu bar and click Internet Options.
  • Select the General tab from the tabs running across the top of the Internet Options box.
  • Cookies should automatically be accepted with Internet Explorer. If you have an older version, however, select Help from the menu bar, select Contents and Index and scroll down the list for Accepting Cookies. Click Accepting Cookies and read the instructions that follow.
  • Click on the Advanced tab and scroll down the list box. Under the Java section, make sure the box next to JIT Compiler for Virtual Machine Enabled is checked and click OK.

For Safari

  • Select Safari on the menu bar.
  • Click the Security icon
  • Under Web Content section, check Enable Plug-ins, Enable JavaScript, and Enable Java. Uncheck Block pop-up Windows.
  • Under Accept Cookies section, check Always or Only from Sites you Navigate to.

For Firefox

  • Select Tools on the menu bar and click Options.
  • Select the Privacy tab from the top of the new window. Make sure that the box next to Accept cookies from sites is checked.
  • Select the Content tab at the top of the Options window. Make sure that the boxes next to Enable JavaScript and Enable Java are checked.
  • Optionally you should uncheck Block pop-up windows. Firefox will, however, give you the option to do this in an alert at the top of the screen when it encounters a pop-up window. It is usually safer to use the button in that alert to unblock pop-up windows only for that particular site.
  • Click OK at the bottom of the Options window to accept changes.

Deleting Temporary Internet Files

The Temporary Internet Files (or cache) folder contains Web page content that is stored on your hard disk for quick viewing. Each time you view a Web page, images, text, video, and audio files are stored in the Temporary Internet Files folder. Occasionally, you must empty this folder so that your computer will continue to run smoothly.

Delete Temporary Internet Files

For Internet Explorer (IE)

  • Select Tools on the menu bar and click Internet Options.
  • Select the General tab from the tabs running across the top of the Internet Options box.
  • Locate the section in the middle of the box that refers to Temporary Internet Files and press the middle button Delete to empty your temporary Internet files. Be patient. This may take a while. If it's been a while since you've performed this task, your computer may freeze. Simply restart if this occurs.
  • Locate the section in the bottom of the box that refers to History, press Clear History button to clear the History.

For Safari

  • Select Safari on the menu bar.
  • Click Reset Safari to clear the History, the Cache, and the Cookies all at once. A confirmation screen appears and click Reset to finish emptying the Cache, Cookies, and History.
  • Select Safari on the menu bar and select Preferences from the menu.
  • If you only want to clear the History, click the History menu, then click Clear History.
  • If you only want to clear the Cache, click the Safari menu, then click Empty Cache.
  • If you only want to clear the cookies, click Security icon, click the Show Cookies button and click the Remove All button to delete all the cookies

For Firefox

  • Select Tools on the menu bar and click Clear Private Data.
  • In the Clear Private Data window, check the items you would like to clear. The Cache is your stored temporary internet files. When you have checked all that you wish to clear, click Clear Private Data now.

Other users (AOL, Opera, and others)


Blackboard is not designed to work with the AOL browser, the Opera browser, the CompuServe browser, or some other browsers.

If you use AOL or CompuServe, you can still connect to your account, but we strongly recommend that you download and install the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. Once you have connected to AOL or CompuServe, you can then minimize AOL or CompuServe and launch one of the other browsers to access your course content.

Some ISPs offer firewall protection as part of a broadband subscription. The security level set-up of firewall might be preventing your from browsing our course web pages. If this occurs, please go to Firewall configuration , change the security level for cookie setting to low level that allows all cookies.

Tip for dial-up users: AOL will sometimes try to "hang up" its call due to perceived service inactivity (since you are using a different browser). If this happens, you should contact AOL technical support in order to adjust your system's default "time-out" so that it doesn't hang up during your activity with another browser.

For all users, POP-UP STOPPERS MUST BE TURNED OFF!

Only newer browsers have this feature built in. Some individuals have stand-alone programs that perform this task. At any rate, these kinds of applications and browser options can interfere with course performance. You may experience trouble if you use pop-up stopping technology with Blackboard, as well as other software and Websites used for our online courses.