eBridge Support

Using eBridge When Traveling

eBridge members who travel away from the MCW network and still want to be able to use eBridge have occasional connection difficulties. There are a variety of reasons for this. Please consider these recommendations prior to traveling to ensure your equipment and the destination Internet availability will work effectively.

• What computer will you be using? Yours, the College's or maybe equipment supplied at your destination?
  • If the computer is yours or the College's, we suggest a trial run. Go offsite prior to leaving and try accessing eBridge and email. You can solve most remote access problems this way. Try going to a McDonalds or Starbucks to ensure your computer works in multiple locations.
  • If you are successful in your trial run and you do have problems at your destination, this narrows the possible complications.
• What type of connection will you have at your destination?
  • If you have trouble at your destination with a laptop with which you have successfully done a trial run, try visiting a coffee shop or McDonalds that has free Internet. This will help you to know if your difficulties are with the firewall or some other restriction at your destination.
• If you are unsure of your laptop's default email access, use Outlook Web access https://owamail.mcw.edu/owa/  Using the Web client of OWA ensures you have Internet access. It also ensures that any email messages that you click "Send" from your laptop mail tool are really sent on the Internet and not just put in a hold file until sometime in the future when your access is secure. This is especially important if you are sending email to ask for Help Desk assistance.
• If you determine that the difficulties are not your computer, talk to someone at your destination about what you might need to do in order to access a secure Web site.
• We recommend you travel with a laptop that you have previously used successfully to connect and work in eBridge. Note: eBridge is not fully compatible with the Blackberry Web browser. For best results use a PC or a MAC – check out eBridge Home Page for browser/system requirements..

If you do have difficulties, contact the eBridge Help Desk and make sure to give us as much detail as possible about what equipment you are using and what type of connection is available. We will do everything we can to help you.