The Student Finance Vigilante

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Use the FAQ to find our answers to common questions. If you can't what you're looking for then you could try searching the help forum. If you can't find an answer to your question please post a new question in the forum, which we will attempt to answer as soon as possible. If you are having problems doing this please use the form below to contact us.

General Questions

General Adobe e-book FAQs

To read The Student Finance Vigilante you need to use Adobe Reader 6. There are several Adobe support websites which have technical advice specific to Adobe Reader.

Technical Questions

How do I get a Login?

Logins are generated when you buy the book. This costs £10 and gives you access to the tools and the forums.

I've downloaded the book... where is it!?
  1. First check the "My Downloads" sub-directory of "My Documents". If it is not there, do a search for *.pdf files within Windows Explorer.
  2. For Windows XP users, the document is automatically saved to the "My e-Books" subdirectory of "My Documents".
  3. You can also open your downloaded document from your Acrobat "Bookshelf". This can be found under the "File" menu in Acrobat or Reader 6.
When I click the download button I get a File Download popup / What do I do with this .etd file?
Causes:
  1. You do not have Acrobat 6 or Adobe Reader 6 installed.
  2. The file type association is missing (etd must be assigned to Adobe Reader).
  3. This can happen after a failed upgrade / installation or when multiple versions of the reader are installed onto your PC.
Solution:

If you do have Adobe Reader 6 or Acrobat 6 installed, open it and drop the "etd" file in it. You should re-associate the file type ".etd" with acrobat 6 if the download starts.

It is the first time I open a protected document. When I click on "I Agree" nothing happens.
Cause 1:

The download starts in a new invisible window (popup). If you have a popup killer (advertisement blocker), this new window cannot be created.

Solution:
  1. Temporarily disable the popup killer to verify if the download effectively starts. Normally you can configure the popup killer to allow the use of popup windows per site.
Cause 2:

Security settings in Internet Explorer can sometimes prevent the download from completing.

Solution:
  1. Check to make sure your browser accepts cookies. In Internet Explorer, go to Tools / Internet Options / Security. Drag the bar to the left down to the bottom until "Accept all cookies" appears. Now try the download again.
It is the first time I open a protected document. Adobe Reader (or Acrobat) starts, but then nothing else happens.
Cause A:

On some systems, the first time Acrobat DRM is used, the download initialization file gets "stuck" in the "Temporary Internet files" cache of Internet Explorer.

Solution:

Delete the "Temporary Internet files" and try to download again. To delete the "Temporary Internet files":

  1. Open Internet Explorer, Select menu "Tools", and then "Internet Options".
  2. Click on "Delete Files" in the "Temporary Internet files" section.
Cause B:

In order to enable Adobe Reader to automatically open the protected document, your computer’s settings must associate the ".etd" file type with the Adobe Reader program.

Solution:
  1. Go to ‘My Computer’ and from the menu bar select Tools > Folder Options and click on the ‘File Types’ tab.
  2. Select ‘.etd’ and click the ‘Advanced’ button.
  3. Place a checkmark in the box next to ‘Confirm open after download’ then click the ‘OK’ button.
  4. When you attempt to download the protected document again, you will be prompted to save the "ebx.etd" file. Save this file, and then double-click it to download the document.
Cause C:

If you have the "light" version of the Adobe Reader and no local administrative rights, the reader will not be able to install the Adobe DRM component when a secured document is opened.

This usually happens on corporate computers where the right to install software is reserved for the IT team.

In corporate environments it is recommended to use the normal (full) version of the Adobe Reader, which already contains the Adobe DRM component.

  1. To check if the required Adobe DRM component is present, open Acrobat, select menu "Help", select "About Adobe plug-ins". There should be a plug-in named "Adobe DRM".
  2. You can obtain this version from the Adobe Reader download page (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html) by selecting "broadband" connection speed in "step 1 of 2".
When I try to activate, I keep getting the error ‘Your Adobe Software could not be activated. The Adobe DRM Activator is not responding’.
Causes:

This error can indicate one of the following problems:

  • The Adobe DRM Activator site may be busy. You are advised to retry at a later time.
  • The Adobe DRM Activator site might be down for maintenance. This usually happens during the weekend.
  • A firewall could prevent your Acrobat from reaching the Adobe DRM Activator site. This is usually a "personal" firewall, which allows assigning rights to applications in a very granular way.
While opening a document from the bookshelf, "this viewer cannot decrypt this document" message box appears.
Cause:

This error means that Reader/Acrobat cannot decrypt the document. Acrobat is activated for another account than the account that was used to download the license, which contains the rights to open the document. This can happen after installing Acrobat over or after a reader.

Solution:

Reactivate Reader/Acrobat with the previously used account (Passport or Adobe Id).

Note: In "Adobe Reader 6.0" the same situation results in the following message box: "There was an error opening this document. Bad encrypt dictionary."

How can I reactivate Adobe DRM?

Go to: https://aractivate.adobe.com

On the activation page, you will need to logon with the old passport credentials so that the previous activation is restored. If not, you will not be able to open/read the previously downloaded documents.

After that, If you went to that page via Reader/Acrobat, the activation should start immediately. If you came there directly using the above URL, you get a menu where you need to click on 'activate' to start the process.

E-books I downloaded using Reader 5.0 will not open in 6.0.

Reactivate your Adobe DRM account by following the steps in the previous question.

I have a firewall – what settings do I need to download the book?

When a personal firewall is present, it needs to allow Adobe Reader to contact the Internet. Most personal firewalls allow assigning rights to software in a very granular manner.

In case of a corporate firewall, the following aspects need to be considered:

  1. Acrobat communicates on port 80 and port 443.
  2. The following domains need to be reachable:
    • www.secureattachment.com
    • http://acs.ebooks.info2clear.com (drm server)
    • https://aractivate.adobe.com (Activation server)
  4. Although Acrobat uses port 80 and port 443 to communicate with the servers, no html files are transmitted. The following content types are used: xml, pdf, fdf and etd.
  5. Acrobat uses custom HTTP headers to communicate with ACS. Some firewalls remove them. It is important that those headers are not removed from requests for the DRM server.

If you are suspecting that your corporate firewall prevents you from downloading the secured document, contact you firewall operator to verify the above issues.

I have a proxy – can I activate the book?

Secured proxies can prevent Acrobat from reaching the Digital Rights Management (DRM) server. When a user is behind such a proxy, he needs to contact his system administrator to obtain a password, or obtain the right to get access to the DRM server.

My download did not complete – what should I do?

Make sure you are connected to the Internet, then open your Adobe Reader.

Go to the Adobe Reader ‘My Bookshelf’ (eBooks -> My Bookshelf).

A placeholder thumbnail image for the partially downloaded e-book will be displayed, reading ‘Double-click to download "The_Student_Finance_Vigilante_r1-0"’.

Double-click this placeholder image to resume the download.

I had a software or network error – what does it mean?

This error usually indicates that a problem occurred during download and that you should attempt to download again.

I got the Error message: ‘None of the requested vouchers could be obtained.’ Eh?

This error usually indicates that a problem occurred during download and that you should attempt to download again.

After the download is complete, there's still an Internet Explorer window open. When I click on the link, it takes me back to the SecureAttachment download page, where I get a message that the document has already been downloaded.

Please disregard the link and close that window. It is opened by Acrobat Reader during the download process. Once the download is complete, Acrobat can't close it. It is an inconvenience our security providers SecureAttachment are aware of, and they are working with Adobe to resolve it.

While downloading, my Acrobat Reader says: "Unable to locate the form, because the FDF lacks an /F key. If the FDF came back as a result of a submit from a PDF form, then the URL is probably missing '#FDF' at the end". What does this mean?

This means that you have the wrong version of Acrobat Reader. Please download Adobe Reader version 6. This is available from the Adobe Acrobat Reader website.

After download when the document is opening I get a message saying "A valid license was not found for this document. Access was denied because the following test failed: <ge UTC UTC-........>"

Check your system clock. Set the clock at the correct time and the date if necessary.

If date and time are correctly set, check if your time zone and daylight saving time are correctly configured.

If everything is configured correctly, the error message shouldn't appear anymore.

After download when the document is opening I get a message saying "Transaction date of license is newer than the time set on your computer. Please verify that your clock is set correctly."

Check your system clock. Set the clock at the correct time and the date if necessary.

If date and time are correctly set, check if your time zone and daylight saving time are correctly configured.

If everything is configured correctly, the error message shouldn't appear anymore.

My Acrobat Reader asks to check for updates each time I open the program, which interrupts my download. How can I disable this?

This automatic check for updates is a setting that you can switch off. Checking for updates can then be done manually.

To switch it off for go to:

Edit->Preferences->Updates: Manually

Are my personal and credit card details secure?

Yes, all personal details are encrypted using SSL with a 128 bit "super cert" certificate issued by GeoTrust. We use SecPay to process all creditcard transactions.

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