If the warning in the login screen states "Connection error. Check your internet connection first, then click on ‘Trouble Logging In?’ for help.", first of all please check that you are able to connect to the internet using your normal internet browser. If you can, then it seems likely that your school or organization is using a firewall, proxy server or other security device that is stopping the player from accessing our website properly. If you are using security software, the log files may tell you why the player is being blocked. However, there are still 4 possible solutions for you – please use the one that suits you best. When you click on ‘Trouble Logging In?’ it will offer you the following options:
Quick Solutions:
Option 1. Register your device online to continue with your Download Player.
This is a quick temporary solution that will last as long as you remain logged in. Click ‘Trouble Logging In?’ on the downloaded player login screen and follow the instructions that will take you to our website to register your device. To remain logged in at the end of your session, simply close the program without logging out (click on the red cross and Exit, but do not log out).
Option 2. Play your songs online in your Streaming Player.
You can use the online Words on Screen™ player from any computer with a good internet connection. You will need to be logged into your account on our website to use this option – simply go to your account dashboard, choose ‘My Words on Screen™ Online’ from the left-hand menu and then choose the ‘Stream Online’ option. This will open a player in your internet browser containing all your songs and eSongbooks. The online player works in exactly the same way as the downloaded player (performance depends on your internet connection speed).
Long Term Solutions
Option 3. Get information for your IT department to implement a solution.
This should be a permanent solution, but does not work for all proxy servers. Your IT department will need the following information:
The downloaded player attempts to connect to www.outoftheark.co.uk using SSL over port 443. If you have security restrictions in place that will prevent or modify this connection, then you either need to put in place an exception so that traffic to this website is allowed and is unmodified.
For example, you may need to add www.outoftheark.com to your websites allow-list, and/or add an exception to your proxy server so that SSL traffic to this site is not decrypted and then re-encrypted with a different security certificate. Please also note that the www prefix is essential. Ideally, your exception should be made using our domain name and not our IP addresses. This is because the latter are subject to change without notice.
Click here to open a PDF with this information to send to your IT co-ordinator.
Option 4. Download your songs to your PC or Mac laptop at home first.
From home, download all the songs from your account that you need at your school, and then just close the application (click on the red cross and Exit, but do not log out). When you reopen the application on the same laptop at your school, you will not need to log in, and you will be able to play the songs without needing to connect to the internet.
To help us to further improve the Words on Screen™ player and our service to you, please let us know which of the above solutions worked for you and our customer. You can email us at support@outoftheark.com or call +44 (0) 20 8481 7200.