Navigating the live website

It is best to NOT use the BACK and FORWARD buttons on your browser. Due to the nature of this 'live' site, if you use the BACK button, you may be seeing 'old' pages that you have already seen (and which may not be valid anymore), instead of new, updated pages. It is best to just use the links provided on each page.

Some pages contain words that have one underlined character, like 'User' on the login page. When you see an underlined character, this indicates that you can jump to that field using the ALT key + the underlined key. Mac users should use the CMD key + underlined key. Note that to use this feature, your browser must support HTML version 4.0 or later.

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Understanding Sessions

A session keeps track of who is logged in, what items are currently on order, and several miscellaneous settings that remain active for the duration of the session. Your session is active from the time your browser accesses the web site until you quit your browser or have not 'hit' the website for at least 30 minutes. This does not mean that the session is only active for 30 minutes. It means that the session will remain active as long as you make a 'hit' to the website at least once every 30 minutes. Once you quit your browser, the session you were using is no longer active. When you start up your browser and log in again, you are assigned a new session ID. However, if you disconnect and you go back and log in again within 30 minutes, your last session ID will be re-assigned again. This means that if you get disconnected while entering an order, you can simply reconnect, login, and continue where you left off.

When you are ordering items using the website, those items are 'assigned' to the current session ID, until you SUBMIT the complete order, at which point the whole order is entered into the database, assigned to your regular, permanent ID. It is not possible to 'save' an order page to a file, quit your session and hope to log back in the next day (or even after 30 minutes) to continue your order where you left off. All new sessions will start up with no items on order.

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Recommended browsers

The browser requirements here are very minimal, because this site uses just straight HTML to operate - no Java applets, JavaScript, ActiveX controls, or other plug-ins. The one exception is the use of the Internet-standard PDF document viewer to display and print company documents, when available. The PDF reader utility is available for free from Adobe Corp.

Your browser must support at least HTML (HyperText Markup Language) version 3.2, although some pages may contain HTML 4.0 extensions, which can affect the layout of the page. It is recommended that you use either Microsoft's Internet Explorer version 4.0 or Netscape's Navigator/Communicator version 4.0, or later. Both are available for downloading for free. Another option is the Opera browser, which has fewer features, but is noted for it's speed.

Your browser must be able to accept cookies so the website can store the one cookie that is used to keep track of your current session ID.

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Browser cache tips

'Cache' is a term used to describe the storage of previously viewed web pages on your computer. Internet documents are stored on your hard drive as you browse the Web. The purpose of caching is to speed up Web page loading by calling on local files when you visit pages more than once. This is good when the page does not change, but when the page is frequently updated, sometimes the browser loads the stored document instead of the most current one. For this reason, all the 'live' pages from this website contain HTML directives that tell the browser to NOT cache these pages. Older browsers that do not comply with HTML version 3.2 may not understand these directives, and may cache the pages anyway. If you suspect that you may be viewing an older page, you can try pressing your browser's Refresh or Reload button, which ensures that the page does not come from the cache.

Clearing your browser cache removes temporarily cached Internet files and resumes the storage of graphics and documents from that point forward. It is a good idea to periodically clear your browser cache to free up space on your local hard drive. You can clear your cache using the following instructions:

Typically both the browser name and version number can be found by first clicking "Help" at the top of the browser and then choosing "About..."

Netscape Navigator versions 2.0 and 3.0 :

-  Select the "Options" entry from the main menu
-  Select the "Network Preferences..." from the drop down menu
-  Select the "Cache" tab on the top left, if not already selected
-  Select the "Clear Memory Cache Now" button
-  Select "OK" to remove all files in your memory cache
-  Select the "Clear Disk Cache Now" button
-  Select "OK" to remove all of the files currently in your disk cache

Microsoft Internet Explorer version 2.0 :

-  Select "View" option on the main menu
-  Select "Options" from the drop down menu
-  Click on the "Advanced" tab
-  Push the "Empty" button in middle of screen, below "Cache" options
-  Push "Yes" to confirm

Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.0 :

-  Select "View" option on the main menu
-  Select "General" from the drop down menu
-  Click on the "Settings" button.
-  Push the "Empty Folder" button
-  Push "OK"

Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.01 :

-  Select "View" option on the main menu
-  Select "Options" from the drop down menu
-  Click on the "Advanced" tab.
-  Push the "Settings" button (in middle of screen)
-  Push the "Empty Folder" button
-  Push "OK"

Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.0 :

-  Select "View" option on the main menu
-  Select "Internet Options..." from the drop down menu
-  Click on the "General" tab on the top left, if not already selected
-  Below "Temporary Internet Files", in the middle of the page, click on "Delete Files"
-  Push "OK"

AOL Browser version 3.0 :

-  Select "Member's" at top of browser
-  Select "Preferences" from the list
-  Click on the "WWW" icon
-  Choose "advanced"
-  Click the "purge cache" button

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Data Missing error using Netscape

When using a browser from Netscape, you may see the following error if you try to print certain pages or if you use the BACK button to attempt to go back to certain pages: (Use of your browser's BACK and FORWARD buttons is not recommended. See elsewhere in this FAQ)

Data Missing

This document resulted from a POST operation and has expired from the cache. If you wish you can repost the form data to recreate the document by pressing the reload button.

This is due to the fact that the page to be printed or backed onto is not cached (all the pages from this live site are intentionally set to not be cached, by using embedded HTML directives) and also because the page resulted from a POST operation. A POST operation simply means that you sent (POSTed) information to the web server, such as your address or zip code, or maybe you just selected certain checkboxes for a report. The problem is that Netscape cannot print the page or go BACKwards to the page because the page does not exist on the hard drive (it's not cached), and also because Netscape does not want to regenerate the page by issuing a POST operation back to the web server.

However, there is a work-around so that you can print POSTed pages using Netscape. When you have a page displayed that you want to print, such as the downline report, you can first save the page to disk, load the saved file into your browser and then print it. The steps to do this are as follows:

From the browser menu option File, select Save As... A dialog box will come up asking you for a File name and a destination folder (Save in :). The default filename will probably be 'wc.dll', which is not an appropriate name. A better name would be anything that has an extension of HTM or HTML, instead of an extension of DLL. That is to say, you could name the file DOWNLINE.HTM - the HTM or HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) extension simply means that your browser will know that the file is an HTML-type file and it should be able to display the file if you double-clicked on it.

You also need to be aware of which folder you save the file in, so you can find the file again to open it. For Microsoft Windows based systems, you can easily save the file to your desktop. This way, it's hard to miss and easy to remember to delete it when you are done. To save it to the desktop, just click on the little down arrow to the right of the Save In: field. If you scroll up the list, the item at the top of the list will be Desktop. Select this, name the file, and press Save. If you do not want to save the file to your desktop, just remember which folder you selected, because you will need to know where the file is in order to load it up in your browser, which is the next step...

Now, once the Save As dialog box is gone, you should be back at your browser. From the browser menu option File, select Open File... A dialog box will come up asking you for a File name and a folder to Look in:. You will need to select the appropriate folder and find the file that you just saved. On Windows systems, you can go to the top of the folder list to access the Desktop folder. Note that the Files of type: field probably says HTML Files. If you saved the file using an extension other than HTM or HTML, then your file will not be displayed as an HTML File, so you should click on the down arrow to the right of the Files of type: field and select All Files (*.*). In this manner you should find and select your newly saved file, then click on Open. The page should open in your browser and you should be able to print it, since it now exists on your hard drive.

Whew! Or you could just install Microsoft Internet Explorer, which doesn't have this problem.

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