Resolving Remote Access Problems

To enable off-campus usage, the majority of our paid e-resources are sent through the EZproxy authentication service, which checks whether the user is affiliated with Princeton and entitled to access. This process occurs whether or not the user is on campus, and is based on each resource having "Proxy enabled" set to Yes at either the service or portfolio level. The "Remote Access Problem" error message means that EZproxy doesn't recognize the URL.

When activating a new e-resource or updating a URL, always test the link starting from Alma. If adding/updating multiple titles from the same site, it's ok to just check two or three. Often the base URL is already registered with EZproxy, because we already have other active subscriptions at the same site. If you do encounter the "Remote Access Problem", follow these steps:

• Double-check that the URL has been entered correctly. If it begins with http, check whether substituting https fixes the problem.
• While on a campus computer, test the URL directly (without the ezproxy prefix) to verify that it works and provides full-text access.
• Submit a problem report to esupport (esupport@princeton.edu) mentioning EZproxy in the subject line. Include the title and URL of the resource that was added/updated and not working.
• Recheck in a few days to make sure the problem has been resolved.

It may be helpful to check if there are other portfolios in the same collection, and whether their links are working. Sometimes tweaking a URL to match a format that's working for other titles may solve the problem. Or sometimes this will reveal that the whole collection is affected by the same linking issue.

Note exception: Passworded titles do not need to go through EZProxy, since authentication for these is not IP-based. Passworded journals are placed in a separate e-collection, called "non-proxy ejournals," that has its proxy flag set to No.