Troubleshooting Your Institution's Proxy

If you're a librarian or information technology specialist at your institution, this page is the best place to get started if you suspect there are errors with your proxy.

Here are some of the most common errors we see with proxies:

Proxy is not supported

Only proxies that use stanzas in their configuration are supported.

The following proxies are recommended:

• OCLC EZproxy
• LibProxy

Missing proxy IP address

If all of the steps look normal when you try to sign on through the proxy, but after you log in, it still doesn't say "Access Provided by [Your Institution]" it may be because we don't have your proxy's IP address on file.

Contact us to add it, then after confirmation, test access again.

Proxy stanza is not configured for HTTPS

As of 2018, we began forcing https for proxy access. Make sure that you have your proxy stanza configured for https as outlined on OCLC's Support site. 

If you're using another proxy service, like WAM or Apache, contact them directly or reach out to our support team and include the information in "None of the above: authentication still fails on a JSTOR page".

Security certificate expired

If you log into your proxy and observe the message "Your connection is not private" or a similar message, check the following:

• Your security certificate has been renewed.
• Confirm that your SSL configuration is set up according to the instructions recommended by your proxy provider.

EZproxy version is outdated

In order to use EZproxy, you must be using version 6.2.2 or later.

Restrictive EZproxy security settings

If one of your users attempts to download large PDFs from JSTOR, or numerous PDFs in a short period of time, your EZproxy security rules may temporarily block them. In some cases, users may receive the error message: File missing: docs/suspend.htm

• Review your security rules configuration. See OCLC's documentation.
  • You should be able to monitor and change these settings through your EZproxy admin UI on the "View security rules" page.
  • Any rules set with the "block" action (rather than "log") should be carefully reviewed, as they may result in your users being suspended for ordinary usage of JSTOR.
• If you enforce any "block" rules in your configuration, you should also create a suspend.htm file and place it in your proxy's /docs directory.
  • This page will be displayed to your users when they are temporarily blocked, enabling them to understand why you have suspended their access.

None of the above: authentication still fails on a JSTOR page

If none of the above apply to your issues with the proxy and you have confirmed the configuration, but you still can't authenticate, your users are unable to download, or if you encounter other errors on the JSTOR site, contact our support team and include the following information:

• Your proxy configuration
• Test credentials (if possible)
• Screenshots of the error
• Screenshots of the browser console (to use the browser console, right-click on the page, then select Inspect > Network > JS)
• Submit a Debug on the error page you see:
  • Add ?debug=true to the end of the URL that you see the error on.
  • Reload the page with that code in the URL.
  • Then press the Debug button on the bottom of the page.