THE MONTGOMERY ACADEMY
Student Email and Internet-Access Information and Instructions

PLEASE NOTE:
  • The personalized login ID and password given to students by advisors should be treated as a personal, private document. Please DO NOT share it with anyone else.
  • An Academy Login ID and password gives each student access to a personal email account on AERIE, the Academy’s communication system; each student's AERIE account should be used for ALL correspondence with and class submissions to Academy teachers and administration.
  • AERIE should also be used to transfer files to and from home for editing and printing, using the “File Storage” folder on each AERIE desktop, unless students use USB flash drives for that purpose. SAVE word processing documents IN RTF FORMAT for universal access on any computer system, regardless of installed applications.
  • An Academy Login ID and password also gives students access to the Internet on Academy or personal computers through our proxy server. NO ACCESS to the Internet on the Academy's network will be allowed except via the Academy proxy server.
AERIE Access from home
The following instructions assume that you have an Internet Service Provider (ISP) like EarthLink, AOL, BellSouth, Knology, Charter, or some other way to get to the Internet and that you have connected to the Internet in your usual way.

IMPORTANT!
If you have not yet downloaded and installed the FirstClass software at home, do that now from the MA webserver at the appropriate links here:
For Windows computers: <http://ma.montgomeryacademy.org/FC10009US.exe>
For Mac OS X computers: <http://ma.montgomeryacademy.org/FC10009US.dmg>
  (it is free, and instructions for installation follow below-- as well as on the FirstClass website at <http://www.firstclass.com/Divisions/FAV13-0024FC95/?Plugin=FC&OpenItemURL=S047C50E4>).

Download the FirstClass® client software and run the installer. When the installer finishes it should open the client application for you. If it doesn’t, double-click the FirstClass® icon on your desktop to open it.

PLEASE NOTE:
(Windows users only) If you reach a screen to input your name and company in the installer process, just enter your real name in its blank and "home" for the “company” item and continue.
(Windows and Mac) If you see a “Registration” screen with blanks to fill in to register when you first run FirstClass, you ARE NOT on AERIE but on the FirstClass® company site. Cancel and continue with the steps below.
  • Click the “Advanced” button - at the bottom left of the FirstClass login window.
  • Click the “Setup...” button at the right side of the Advanced settings that dropped down from the login window.
  • Enter the server address for AERIE (aerie.montgomeryacademy.org) in the “Server:” blank in the Setup window. If you put in the wrong server address, it won’t work (just like a web page).
  • Leave all the other blanks blank (except the Login ID, if you don’t want to have to put in your ID each time you login).
  • Click the “Save” button when you’ve entered the server address.

Email access using the FirstClass Client for MacOS or Windows

  • Start FirstClass (we assume you’ve entered the AERIE server’s server address when you installed it: aerie.montgomeryacademy.org).
  • Enter your User ID and password and click the “Login” button.
  • Double-click your Mailbox to see sent and received mail and drafts, and on other conferences to see “non-personal” information.
  • Make a new message (or send or unsend or view history or any other message options) using the “Message” menu items or the icons on the mailbox window’s toolbar.
  • Change your password in the “Collaborate” menu.
  • Change your AERIE desktop view to or from “List” or “Icon” (or other strange choices) in the “View” menu.
  • IF YOU SEE A RED FLAG on the System News folder or a message there when its window opens automatically, READ IT. It will be important information about planned system maintenance or other system-wide occurrences.

Email access using a browser in MacOS OR Windows, any version

To access your email account on AERIE when you’re away from your home computer - from any computer on the Internet - follow these steps:

PLEASE NOTE: Browser logins require you to log out by clicking the “Logout” item in the left column of an AERIE window when you finish your session - or AERIE will not let you log in again until it resets your account (it only allows one login per user at a time).

  • Start Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, or SeaMonkey (or whatever else you use to get to web pages) as usual.
  • Enter the address for the AERIE server in the Address or Location blank: http://aerie.montgomeryacademy.org/Login/
  • Enter your name and password as prompted.
  • Follow on-screen prompts; click on your Mailbox to see sent and received mail and drafts, and on other conferences to see “non-personal” information.
  • Log out BEFORE you close the last browser window.

AERIE and Internet Access at the Academy
If you are on a Mac with a login panel that includes a “Students” item, click the “Students” name to gain access to the desktop before trying any of the next steps; use password “students” if asked at that screen. If presented with blanks for both ID and password, use “students” for both name and password.

To access your email account on AERIE from an Academy Macintosh:
  • If the “Dock” isn’t visible at the bottom of the screen, move the mouse pointer to the bottom edge of the screen and it should appear. Click on the blue and yellow FirstClass icon you’ll find there. If there isn’t one, then open the FirstClass folder by double-clicking the hard drive icon --> Applications --> FirstClass (If the dock doesn’t appear at the bottom, someone may have moved it to the right or left edge of the screen. Try moving your mouse pointer to either of those edges and it should reappear).
  • Enter your ID and password in the appropriate spaces in the FirstClass login window (you may need to replace the existing name in the “User ID” blank with your own ID) and click the “Login” button.
  • Make sure to choose QUIT from the FirstClass menu when you finish with AERIE email; unlike Windows, Macs DO NOT exit the application until you QUIT from them.

To access the Internet using Safari, Firefox, or SeaMonkey browsers from an Academy Macintosh:
  • Use the browser application as usual.
  • Make sure to QUIT from the application menu at the top left of the screen (it’ll say Safari or Firefox or SeaMonkey) when you finish with your browser session; unlike Windows, Macs DO NOT exit the application until you QUIT from them, and your login to the proxy server remains active while the browsers are running, whether or not you have open windows in them.
  • Follow the instructions above to find one of those applications’ icons in the dock and click it once.
  • When the WebStomper proxy login window appears, enter your User ID and Password in the appropriate spaces and click the “OK” button (you’ll probably see the login ID for the previous user in the ID space; just replace it with your own). DO NOT check the box for “remember password” or “save password” or you’ll leave your account open for abuse by another user when you leave the computer.
  • Please PROTECT your password(!) and remember to QUIT from any applications that access email or the Internet. If you forget your password, please ask your teacher/advisor to get it for you. If you know that some other student knows your password, tell your teacher/advisor to let the Academy technology office know immediately. Your Internet-access password is your passport to the Internet.

ALL INTERNET ACCESS FROM ACADEMY COMPUTERS IS LOGGED
for time online, sites visited, time spent on each page, and a statistical analysis is generated to indicate patterns of Internet usage. Both student and parent may have access to student Internet usage logs. Access to Internet usage logs is based on each student’s login ID and password, so you really don’t want someone else to have your account password (with which they would be able to misuse your access privileges). Students will only be able to access the Internet on campus by going through the proxy server.