1. Double-click on the FirstClass® icon (VTH) on your desktop.
The Login dialog box appears.
2. Type your User ID.
Click Save.
3. Type your Password. We do not
recommend saving your password
for security reasons.
4. The first time you login, your
default password is the same as
your user ID.
5. Click Login.
Your Virtual Town Hall® desktop appears.
If you are using Virtual Town
Hall for email services many
of the icons will represent
your email box, personal
calendar, address book and
internal Intranet services.
The typical icons for
managing web pages are
the ones labeled "Pages",
"Digital File Cabinet" or
"Public_Documents", where
your web folders and files
are stored, and "Posting
Shortcuts" or "Posting
Stationery", which contains
the pre-addressed email
messages for posting your news, agendas and minutes directly to your website and
email subscriber services.
© Copyright 2010
This documentation is proprietary information for the use of Virtual Town Hall clients and should not be
disclosed to unauthorized persons without the express written consent of Virtual Town Hall.
Login Trouble Shooting
Having trouble connecting to VTH through your FirstClass login? Have no fear - just
follow these instructions and we'll have you up and running in no time.
If your error message reads: The userID or password is not valid, please do the
following:
- Check your userID to make sure it is correct. Normally it will be the first initial of your
first name plus your full last name in lower case letters.
- Have you changed your password recently?
Try an alternative password you may use elsewhere. Then click Login. If it still
doesn't work give us a call at customer support so we can reset your password.
If your error message reads: Sorry there is no FirstClass server by that name on
the network, please follow these step-by-step instructions:
1. Can you access the Internet? Visit one of your favorite websites to make sure.
2. Have there been recent changes to your network?
3. Have there been recent modifications to the firewall, or has a new firewall been
installed?
4. Have there been changes to your computer (Anti-Virus protection enabled, for
example)?
Keeping the above questions in mind, here are a number of troubleshooting tests for to
try out.
Open a web browser, and try connecting to the following:
Step 1. Your town's website. If you can connect properly it means you are connected
to the Internet and our server is working fine. It could be a problem in your network or
with your computer. Go to Step 4. If your site does not come up then go to Step 2.
Step 2. Try the CNN site: http://www.cnn.com If you can connect properly it means
you are connected to the Internet and our server may be experiencing a problem. Go
to Step 3.
Step 3. Please contact our customer support to let us know.
© Copyright 2010
This documentation is proprietary information for the use of Virtual Town Hall clients and should not be
disclosed to unauthorized persons without the express written consent of Virtual Town Hall.
Step 4. If all of the above seems to be working fine try your First Class login on
someone else's computer, or ask anyone else in your office who also logs into VTH to
see if they can connect. If you can log in successfully on another computer, then you
know the problem is on your specific computer. You may need to contact your local
tech support to resolve the issue, but first go to Step 5..
Step 5. If you can't connect to FC from your computer, check to make sure your
FC settings are correct:
a. The login screen should look like
this, possibly with your userID if you
have saved it. Make sure the Address
field says "home.fc", as appears here.
Make sure the Server address is
fc.virtualtownhall.net or
ma.virtualtownhall.net
If not, click on Setup, and
enter either
fc.virtualtownhall.net or
fc.ma.virtualtownhall.net in
the server field, and make
sure Local Network.FCP is in
the "Connect Via" window. If
any of this was different save
your settings file and try to log
in again. If you try to log in
after modifying the above
settings and are still unsuccessful, click on Setup again and try the following:
Click on Configure and make sure the screen looks like this:
Make sure that the Port Number field reads "TCP Default (510)". This is the network
port number that is used for the encrypted communication from your computer to our
servers.
(For IT Managers: Server setup should be: outgoing port 510 - bypass proxy settings).
© Copyright 2010
This documentation is proprietary information for the use of Virtual Town Hall clients and should not be
disclosed to unauthorized persons without the express written consent of Virtual Town Hall.
Now click Save, then Save again on the next window - and then click Login on the
login screen. If you're able to login, congratulations!
If you are still unable to login, give us a call.
The following instructions are for ADVANCED computer users who
are comfortable with DOS commands. If you are NOT comfortable
using DOS commands, please call (978) 461-5895.
If all of these above attempts fail, use the following ADVANCED tools to gather
data for the VTH IT Team:
The following IP address will be necessary for this section:
a. Our Main Server: 24.39.57.60
or our second server 24.39.57.10
To run a Trace Route test, do the following:
Start Menu >> Run
Type cmd, click OK.
You'll see a DOS prompt:
Type tracert and one of the IP addresses listed above, hit enter.
© Copyright 2010
This documentation is proprietary information for the use of Virtual Town Hall clients and should not be
disclosed to unauthorized persons without the express written consent of Virtual Town Hall.
The following are examples of potential responses:
Example of a Good Response:
© Copyright 2010
This documentation is proprietary information for the use of Virtual Town Hall clients and should not be
disclosed to unauthorized persons without the express written consent of Virtual Town Hall.
Example of a Bad Response:
After this test, you'll need to ping our servers using DOS commands:
Type ping and one of the IP addresses, hit enter.
Example of a Good Ping:
© Copyright 2010
This documentation is proprietary information for the use of Virtual Town Hall clients and should not be
disclosed to unauthorized persons without the express written consent of Virtual Town Hall.
Example of a Bad Ping:
After these options, then check to see if there's an open path to FC:
At the DOS prompt, type telnet 24.39.57.60 510 or telnet 24.39.57.10 510 and hit
enter.
This determines if indeed you can connect to FC via port 510. If you get a Connect
failed message, one of the servers is down or the port in your firewall isn't open (i.e.
there may be a firewall on your network that is blocking requests to this port).
Now that you've done a bunch of tests in DOS, you'll need to copy all of it and
paste it into an email to send to us.
To copy in DOS, right-click on the top bar (above the text area) and choose Edit >>
Select All, then Edit >> Copy.
After you paste this information into the body of an email message, copy the following
link into a browser address window and click GO. This will tell us what your
computer's IP address.
http://www.whatismyip.com/
Copy the number that appears on the screen and paste it into that same email body and send it all to [email protected].
© Copyright 2010
This documentation is proprietary information for the use of Virtual Town Hall clients and should not be
disclosed to unauthorized persons without the express written consent of Virtual Town Hall.