Thanks for all of the replies. It's good to see that I'm not going
crazy!

I did think 'firewall' when I heard about the problem but there are a
few things that are puzzling. As far as I know bb uses port 80 so that
should definitely not be blocked. They can get as far as getting the
dialog box to enter in their network login but then the server just
returns a not authorized page. I'm wondering whether another port gets
used to pass the login details to our Active Directory. Students can log
in from home no probs :(

I am considering doing what Sandra suggests and show them with a
laptop!! 

Laurence, I would be very interested to learn what kind of set up you
have. Did Blackboard look after the authentication or by some other
means?  And I love this comment "However this needed consideration by at
least two council committees and trying to explain this to local
councillors, most of whom were not IT users, was interesting to say the
least.". Sounds like my Council!!! Haha

Thanks again

Mark Wilfan
Blackboard Support
Bridgwater College

-----Original Message-----
From: Blackboard/Courseinfo userslist
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kipar, Nicole
Sent: 10 November 2006 11:55
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Local govt blackboard access problems

Hi Mark,

Are you sure it isn't a case of their firewalls blocking your VLE? We
had that problem at my last University. Policing students couldn't
access our Blackboard server from their networks and it was a case of
them opening up a port.

Best wishes

Nicole

-----Original Message-----
From: Blackboard/Courseinfo userslist
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mark Wilfan
Sent: 10 November 2006 11:45
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Local govt blackboard access problems

Hi guys,

Just wondering if anybody has come across anything like this before.

Our college runs a few full cost business courses which quite a few of
our local council employees take. It seems that none of these students
can access our Blackboard instance from within the council networks.
Councils include Sedgemoor District, North Somerset and Somerset county
councils so I'm assuming they all have a similar set up. 

We use web server delegation to log students in and our active directory
deals with authentication...

Anybody????

As usual the IT guys at the respective councils say that it isn't their
problem, it's ours! I fail to see how but would love to tell them what
it is.

Thanks muchly

Mark Wilfan
Blackboard Support
Bridgwater College

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