- THE VIETNAM CENTER AND ARCHIVE
- Texas Tech University
How to Use the Virtual Vietnam Archive
Error Pages, Messages, System Maintenance, and Access Problems
Error Pages Overview
The Virtual Vietnam Archive and the systems that allow it to function are complex, and at times errors may occur. There is a huge number of possibilities that could cause these errors. The error pages we generate provide as much information as possible, but still probably won't tell you why something went wrong. We realize this can be very frustrating, and we do our best to keep problems to a minimum. There are generally three types of error pages you may see.
Virtual Vietnam Archive Error Pages
Virtual Vietnam Archive error pages have the same color scheme as this tutorial page. They have a blue title at the top of the center section describing the error category. This is followed by information about contacting us. Finally, there is a table with a lot of information in it. Reading through this information, particularly the top cell, may tell you what happened. There are a number of possible error messages, and occasionally the message you receive may not match what has happened. Please feel free to contact us with any errors you receive. The only way for us to fix problems is to know they happened.
When contacting us, please provide all of the information on the error page to help us to trace the problem. You can highlight all of the text and paste it into an email message, or (in Windows) hit Ctrl+Alt+Prt Scr on your keyboard. This takes a screen shot, or a screen capture, of what is on your monitor. You can then open a image editor like Microsoft Paint or Adobe Photoshop and paste the image into a file. This file can be saved and emailed to us as an attachment. In addition to the error text, please provide us with as much information as possible, including what page you were trying to access, the steps you took to get to it, the time and date of the error, and the operating system and internet browser you were using.
File Retrieval Errors (StarFetch)
The Virtual Vietnam Archive uses a file retrieval system called StarFetch. If this system is unable to find the digital file you were trying to access, you will receive an error message. This error message will include a title describing what happened, the name of the file it was trying to retrieve, and a request number. When reporting a StarFetch error, please include all of this information.
Internet Error Pages
Some errors are caused by internet or other network problems that are out of our control. These may be caused by anything from your ISP to our University network. If you receive one of these errors, please try us again later. If you continue to have problems, please feel free to call us at 806-742-9010.
Messages
When the Virtual Vietnam Archive will be unavailable for a planned reason, such as system maintenance or a backup, a notice will be appear at various locations on our website. They will appear below the links in the left column on most of our pages, and will also appear near the top of the entry page to the Virtual Archive, as well as the Vietnam Center and Archive homepage. These message should tell you what is happening, and when. All times listed will be for the Central Time Zone, where we are physically located.
System Maintenance
Periodically, the Virtual Archive may be unavailable due to either system errors or system maintenance or updates. When possible, we will notify users ahead of time. Between the hours of 10PM (-06:00) and 2AM, users may experience limited availability due to system backups. Most pages should be available, though.
Access Problems
Problems accessing the Virtual Archive, or files within it, sometimes happen. If you are taken to a page titled Browser Incompatibility (http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/virtualarchive/redirects/), this means that your current internet browser does not work with the current version of the Virtual Vietnam Archive. Most newer browsers will work, but the site is designed specifically with Internet Explorer, the most widely used browser. For many of our Virtual Archive pages, including the search page, an older version is available. The links to these pages are listed under the Choose Your Page heading on the Browser Incompatibility page. These old version can access all of the information the current Virtual Archive version can, except for maps. These old pages are no longer supported, and do not include many of the newer features.
As we learn of other error problems, we try to provide information on a problems page. This can be found at: http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/virtualarchive/general/problems.htm. Also, please check our Frequently Asked Questions/Knowledge Base section for other solutions.