Chat Tips/Troubleshooting
Keep in mind not all of the online courses have chat sessions—many instructors prefer to use the Discussion Boards or Email in place of chats. However, if your instructor has indicated chats will be held, and you have tried, but are unable to load the chat applets, please read the following carefully:

Troubleshooting Problems
1. First, shut down your computer, reboot, reconnect to the internet, and clear out your browsers temporary internet files and cookies. To do this in Internet Explorer, click Tools - Internet Options - General Tab - under the Temporary Internet Files section- choose Delete Files - click OK, then select Delete Cookies and click OK. Click on the Settings button in the same section, and check that "Every visit to the page" is selected. After completing this, login to your course and try to access chat again. In many, many cases, temporary glitches are cleared up simply by rebooting and/or clearing your temp files.

2. If you use a dial-up modem connection, the chat applet may take a few seconds to several minutes to appear--make sure you are allowing enough time for the window to appear.

3. Try accessing the chat at a different time and day to determine if it is a temporary problem or something that occurs every single time you try to access it. Tip: A large number of classes hold chat sessions on weekday evenings and there can be delays when many users attempt to login at the same time. We recommend accessing the chatroom early (as much as a half-hour or twenty minutes before the scheduled start time, if possible) so you can avoid the last minute connection problems that might delay access.

4. Check if a firewall might be preventing access. (Particularly important if you are located on a military base, using a computer at your workplace, or use software such as Windows Firewall or ZoneAlarm. Contact your network administrator for assistance. The Blackboard chatroom requires that ports 7755, 8011 and 8081 are opened for access.

5. Make sure you turn off or disable any pop-up blocking programs. This includes the Google© Toolbar, Internet Explorer w/Service Pack 2 Pop-up Blocker, and browsers, such as AOL© and Mozilla©, which allow you to turn off pop-ups. The chat applet utilizes popup windows to launch the chat, and they will not not load if a pop-up blocker is installed.

6. Try using a different browser. A list of browsers which have been certified for use in Blackboard courses can be found at: http://www.blackboard.com/docs/BlackboardClientBrowserConf.pdf Tip: While it is recommended that you first upgrade to a certified configuration, students have reported much success using the Mozilla Firefox browser, even though it is not certified. It is available by download at: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

7. Finally, and most importantly, the chatrooms are Java-based applets and require the Sun Java plug-in (JRE 1.4.1_03 or higher) in order to work properly. Note: The plug-in is an 8-megabyte file, it only needs to be downloaded and installed once, not each time you visit the chatroom. Important note: The Java Plug-in is required, the Java Access Bridge is not required.

Check your browser's current Java version in the box below, then review the following choices carefully:

If "Java Virtual Machine from "Microsoft" appears in the box above:
Download the Java Plug-in (JRE) manually using either the "Download Java Plug-in" link that appears on the chat launch page, or directly from http://java.sun.com/products/archive/j2se/1.4.1_01.

After the download has completed, start the installation program by double-clicking the icon, and follow the screen prompts. Make sure to restart your computer so the new plug-in is recognized.
After returning to your course, click the Join button for your chat session, the chat window should load.
If "Java Version Version 1.3.1 or earlier from Sun Microsystems" appears in the box above, the earlier version of the Java Plug-in must be removed before installing the newer 1.4.1 JRE. To do that, complete the following steps while you are not connected to your course or the internet.

Close all applications and browser windows.

Open the Control Panel.

Go to Add/Remove Programs.

Check the version for Java 2 Runtime Environment

ONLY If it is Version 1.3.1 or earlier, click Remove. (Be careful not to remove any other programs from the list).

Close the Control Panel, and reboot if prompted to do so.

Reconnect to the internet and login to your course.

Click on Communication, Collaboration and click the Join button next to Virtual Classroom or Chat. The new JRE 1.4.1 plug-in should automatically install. If it does not, download it manually using the "Download Java Plug-in" link that appears on the chat launch page, or directly from http://java.sun.com/products/archive/j2se/1.4.1_01.
After the download has completed, start the installation program by double-clicking the icon, and follow the screen prompts. Make sure to restart your computer so the new plug-in is recognized.
After returning to your course, click the Join button for your chat session, the chat window should load.