If you're experiencing difficulty with the password process when entering the Graduate Center or a specialty course, it's tempting to assume it's because of your browser, the web designer, or your computer. Nearly always, however, it's a little glitch in the way the password was entered. Password coding will accept only that special combo of letters and numbers it was programmed to accept. A space, a punctuation mark, a bracket - all these will create problems. So before you kick your computer or curse the web designer, try the following:

• Make sure your CapsLock is off. (a common problem)
• Enter only the letters/number combination, no spaces, brackets or punctuation
• Always type your password in. Don't cut and paste. Sometimes you'll inadvertently pick up a "space" at the beginning or end of the password
• If your password seems to have been accepted, but you get a message saying, "All finished with the Graduate Center" or "All finished with the Computer Course", check the tool bar at the bottom of your screen.
• You will probably find there's another copy of your browser (i.e. Netscape, Internet Explorer, or whatever you use) sitting there. If you click on that copy, bringing it up to the main screen, you will find the course, already opened and ready for you to begin.
• If your password is not being accepted and it has an 0 in it, try the 0 as a number first. If that doesn't work, try it as the letter o. Likewise with the number 1 and the letter l.

In future, we will avoid using either of those in our passwords.

Good Luck with your online Specialty Course!