Problems Registering or Logging In

Scenario 1: You were unable to complete the registration and you attempted to re-register but the server says that there is already someone in the user database with your email address.

Solution: If you completed the registration process far enough to receive a temporary password in your email, log into MatWeb with your email address and temporary password and the MatWeb server should allow you to continue the registration process where you left off. If you did not receive a temporary password or are unable to log in and the server will not let you re-register with your email address, contact us and we'll delete your previous registration so that you can register again.

Scenario 2: You click the "Register Now" button and you are sent to a page that tells you that you must have cookies enabled to use MatWeb. You check your browser settings and see that cookies are enabled. You can't register because you can't get past the cookie error page.

Scenario 3: You've already registered, you enter your username and password and click the "Login" button, the information in the login box disappears and you are not logged in. Each time you attempt to log in the log in box is cleared and you can't log in.

Solution: Check the date and time on your PC. If the clock on your computer is set to more than 2 years in the future, please set it to your correct local time and date. MatWeb's cookies are set to expire in 2 years. If your computer's clock is set farther in the future, the login function will not work - the cookie will be written, expire immediately, and delete itself, thus logging you out of MatWeb immediately after you log in.

If the above solution doesn't seem to help, try to register or log in from another computer, to ensure that there is not a problem with your local network or firewall. (If there are no other computers, go to the next step below.) If you can't, there could be network or firewall problem (see your Network Administrator). If you can register or log in from another computer, then the problem might exist on your computer (see below).

Possible Cause: You might be one of a small number of MatWeb users that have a corrupted MatWeb cookie.

Cookies allow the server to keep track of where you are within the MatWeb site and what you are doing. This is not so much to keep tabs on you but to facilitate your searches - for example, when you generate a search with more the one page of search results and you click the "Next Page" button to see the next page of results, the cookie on your computer helps the server to know what your search was, how many pages of results there are, which page of results you are on, and which page of results you want see next.

Sometimes, this cookie becomes corrupted. The best solution to this problem is to erase the cookie and start over. This can be tricky because the are a number of ways a cookie can regenerate itself. The following procedure is what we recommend to clear your MatWeb cookies and get you back on track.

Solution:

1. Close down all Internet browsers but one.
2. Make sure that you are NOT at the MatWeb web site.
3. If you use IE 6, choose Tools, Internet Options, Delete Cookies (click here for other browser instructions).
4. Close down your browser.
5. Open a new instance of your browser, go to the MatWeb site and try logging in.

Note: Deleting all of your cookies could have unintended results. Some web sites might store user preferences in cookies, in which case if you delete all your cookies, you may have to reestablish your preferences the next time you visit those sites.

If you'd rather delete the MatWeb cookies only, click here to see how to selectively delete cookies depending on which browser and version you use.

Another option, if you use Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer, is to do the following:

1. Close all browsers
2. Use the Search function to find the folder called 'Cookies'.
3. Hold down the Ctrl button and select all cookies with matweb, mymatweb, or matls in the cookie name.
4. Right-click the mouse and select Delete
5. Click Yes when the computer asks, "Are you sure you want to delete these items?"
6. Open a new browser window, go to the MatWeb site and log in.

If you continue to have trouble with cookies, you might try using a Netscape browser to view MatWeb. To date, most of the users who have problems with cookies are IE users. We recommend using Netscape 4.7x, as the latest version of Netscape Communicator seems to have a number of bugs. You can download a version of Netscape 4.7x from the Netscape.com website. You could even save a short-cut to Netscape on your desktop and set the homepage to MatWeb if you'd like.