Kia ora koutou

We’ve had a wee spate of people reporting privacy/site not secure or 404/file not found errors since we turned off ezproxy.

e.g. of an error (note the ezproxy.canterbury.ac.nz in the url part):
Your connection is not private
Attackers might be trying to steal your information from www-proquest-com.ezproxy.canterbury.ac.nz (for example, passwords, messages or credit cards). Learn more
NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID

In some cases these are due to people still trying to use ezproxied links (in which case you can point them to our link converter but if someone reports having these issues with multiple links and using library links or Google/GS then it is likely that they are using Zotero and have the browser extension/plug in set to automatically reload  certain sites via proxy (in this case ezproxy).

The Zotero subject guide page contains instructions on how to remove ezproxy from the proxy settings of the extension and to disable the auto-proxy function.  If they are not actively using the browser plugin/extension they can also just disable it in their browser’s “manage extensions” menu.

We have added this information to the technical knowledge base in Service Now  (for Digital Services staff who may be dealing with incidents users have raised) and I am going to add it to the user-facing knowledge articles soon too.

Ngā mihi,

Romy (on behalf of Library Systems)