[Eril-l] Puzzling remote authentication problem

Mon Jul 24 11:20:00 PDT 2023

Hi all,
We had this happen recently with a student.  There are a few reasons the suspend.htm page can get invoked for a user:

  *   They transfer over 2GB of data within an hour (EnforceOCLCByteLimit).
  *   They access EZproxy from more than four countries within a day (EnforceOCLCCountryLimit).
  *   They access EZproxy from more than 20 network addresses within an hour (EnforceOCLCIPLImit).

In our case the account had tripped all 3 of these rules but the 3rd resulted in a permanent, rather than temporary, suspension.  We would expire the suspension as Kristin describes but  then it would happen again immediately.  The log showed that the student’s network connection was using many different IP addresses within a short span of time – it seemed to be switching his IP address every second.  It turned out he was using a VPN configured to continuously change his public IP address.  When he switched to a different internet connection, the problem was resolved.

We took that opportunity to edit the boilerplate docs\suspend.htm file to something hopefully more meaningful and helpful for our users!

Cheers
Jean
__________________________________
Jean Blackburn, Collections Librarian
Vancouver Island University Library
P 250.753.3245 ext 2091
C 250.618.7955
E jean.blackburn at viu.ca<mailto:jean.blackburn at viu.ca>

With respect, huy tseep q’u to the Coast Salish peoples on whose traditional and unceded territories I live and work.

From: Eril-l <eril-l-bounces at lists.eril-l.org> On Behalf Of Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list via Eril-l
Sent: July 24, 2023 9:46 AM
To: Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list <eril-l at lists.eril-l.org>
Subject: Re: [Eril-l] Puzzling remote authentication problem

Good Morning,

You can go into EZProxy Admin under security settings and tripped security rules, click the box and then “Expire checked” and it will expire the suspend.txt error for that person.

Thanks,
Kristin

Kristin Rogers
Electronic Resources & Discovery Librarian
Associate Professor
The University of Mississippi
JD Williams Library
50 Galtney Lott Plz
P.O. Box 1848
University, MS 38677-1848
U.S.A.
O: +1-662-915-3409 | F: +1-662-915-6744
kerogers at olemiss.edu<mailto:kerogers at olemiss.edu> | www.olemiss.edu<http://www.olemiss.edu/>

From: Eril-l <eril-l-bounces at lists.eril-l.org<mailto:eril-l-bounces at lists.eril-l.org>> On Behalf Of Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list via Eril-l
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2023 10:58 AM
To: Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list <eril-l at lists.eril-l.org<mailto:eril-l at lists.eril-l.org>>
Subject: Re: [Eril-l] Puzzling remote authentication problem

[EXTERNAL]

If you try to open an online resource and get the error message File missing: docs/suspend.htm, it means you have exceeded the maximum amount of data allowed to be downloaded through the proxy server. This can happen if you download image-rich files or other large documents.

Try having him download fewer articles at a time and see if that works.

Anne Nolan
--
Anne Cerstvik Nolan, MLS | Head, Collection Strategies for Licensing and Assessment | Brown University Library
My pronouns are she/her/hers. Here’s why I’m telling you this<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__medium.com_-40mrsexsmith_dear-2Dcis-2Dpeople-2Dwho-2Dput-2Dyour-2Dpronouns-2Don-2Dyour-2Dhello-2Dmy-2Dname-2Dis-2Dnametags-2D78c047ed7af1&d=DwMFAg&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=_DbFLL68GZb4TWFKnIjqerfj-eBw9xAGVP3nee407NQ&m=uQLe5J1u6PPBoYMHXJqlIgpIIhO5I0qHffZXVnPqgdk&s=8DujmyozbxtARYqd0Tx1XN-4gfz73pkaLO44n-YUibY&e=>.

On Mon, Jul 24, 2023 at 11:47 AM Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list via Eril-l <eril-l at lists.eril-l.org<mailto:eril-l at lists.eril-l.org>> wrote:
Do you have a hosted EZproxy server?  If so, that sounds like OCLC suspended the account for some reason, so you might try contacting them.

~Courtney F.

On Mon, Jul 24, 2023 at 10:27 AM Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list via Eril-l <eril-l at lists.eril-l.org<mailto:eril-l at lists.eril-l.org>> wrote:
Good morning-

I have a faculty member who is having trouble using library resources remotely, and I have exhausted pretty much everything in my toolkit to resolve the problem. This person consistently gets an error message that says "File missing: docs/suspend.htm" after entering his credentials when trying to access something via a proxied link. This behavior persists across different browsers and devices, and happens regardless of what platform he tries to use. Even more curious, he cannot access any library resources when using the campus VPN. My instinct is that there is some problem with his credentials, but Campus IT insists that nothing is wrong with his account.

Has anyone ever seen this type of problem before and found a solution? Short of sending him back to campus IT, I'm stumped.

Thanks!
Kate
Kate Silton
she / her / hers
Electronic Resources Librarian
Z. Smith Reynolds Library, Wake Forest University
336.758.5484 | siltonk at wfu.edu<mailto:siltonk at wfu.edu>
orcid<https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9200-5006>

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