MSU Student FAQ Page for LON-CAPA

1. I enrolled for my course but I don't have access to my course on LON-CAPA. How do I get access?
   1. Check the LON-CAPA Course Catalog, which is linked to on the log-in screen, to see if your course has been set up to use LON-CAPA. If your course is not listed, then your instructor has yet to request your course for LON-CAPA.
   2. If your course is listed in the LON-CAPA catalog and you have recently enrolled, it can take up to 48 hours from enrollment to get into LON-CAPA.
   3. If your course is listed and you enrolled in the course more than three days ago, then your instructor has purposefully chose to delay student access. To see detailed information about when your course access will begin, you will need to log-in to LON-CAPA.
      • Once you have logged-in, in the URL after the http://sX.lite.msu.edu, type /adm/coursecatalog. Search for your course. After you find your course, click the link for Course Details. You can then see if auto-enrollment has been enabled and when the student access will begin.

2. When I try to log-in I see a page that begins "Sentinel Error Detected"

   LON-CAPA at MSU uses the Sentinel service provided centrally by Administrative Information Services to authenticate MSU Net IDs and passwords. Sentinel is MSU's single sign on service (SSO) and is used by a number of other campus services including Stuinfo, MSU libraries, and Breeze. LON-CAPA can also use an alternative non-SSO method - ACNS's Kerberos service to authenticate MSU Net IDs and passwords.

   Whenever there is an extended Sentinel outage, LON-CAPA will be switched to use Kerberos, by default. However, there will be a brief period before the switchover, when attempts to log-in will display an error message from the Sentinel server. If you encounter a Sentinel error use the URL: http://msu.loncapa.org/adm/login to access the alternative log-in page.

   See the Login Help page for more information.

3. When I try to login to the LON-CAPA system, after I type in my password and press enter, my username and password disappears.

   You need enable javascript in your browser's preferences.

4. When I try to log-in, I see the intro screen for a split second but then I am returned to the login screen.
   • You need enable cookies in your browser's preferences.
   • If enabling cookies does not fix your problem, make sure you are only running one firewall. For example, running both the ZoneAlarm and the Windows XP firewalls at the same time will return you to the log-in screen shortly after logging in.

5. I forgot my password.

   Your LON-CAPA username and password is the same as you MSU NetID and password. You can get help for this at http://help.msu.edu.

6. I dropped my course/I changed sections but it is still listed on LON-CAPA

   It can take up to 48 hours for LON-CAPA to be aware of your drop (see question 1). If your dropped course still remains listed on LON-CAPA after a few days, then your instructor has specifically requested that drops do not automatically occur. During the beginning of the semester, there are sometimes unintentional drops due to unpaid parking tickets, housing, tuition, etc.. These students tend to re-enroll. It is easier for both the instructor and the dropped student to still be able to do homework in LON-CAPA while the financial issue is getting taken care of. Dropped students will remain listed in the course until the instructor forces a class list update while specifying to automatically drop non-enrolled students from LON-CAPA. If you want a class removed from your courses screen, you will need to contact the instructor of that course. You may also want to make use of the LON-CAPA hotlist functionality in your LON-CAPA preferences accessible from main menu.

7. My old courses from previous semesters are still listed on my courses page

The instructor decides how long students have access to a course. We suggest that you make use of the LON-CAPA hotlist functionality. Click Main Menu and then click the item to edit your LON-CAPA preferences. There is a link to Change Roles (Course) Page preferences. With the hotlist, you can mark your most commonly used courses to always appear on the top of the page. If you really want the course removed, then you must contact your previous instructor.

8. I read this FAQ and the getting started guide for students and I still need help. What should I do?

   You can submit a help request ticket by clicking here.