WRITTEN BY: Joseph Cotton, Campus News Editor

After being inaccessible for four days, Xavier’s Banner system, which allows students to register for classes and track their degree progress, has moved to Amazon Web Services’ cloud and will be operational on this new platform starting today.  

Xavier’s  Information Technology Office has recommended that students do three things to avoid problems with using Banner on the cloud: Clear their browser cache and cookies, delete old bookmarks and reset their VPN connection. 

To clear the cache on Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, users will need to go into settings, click the ‘clear browsing data’ section under privacy and security, select to clear ‘all time’ on the pop-up menu and finalize the process by clicking the blue ‘Clear data’ button. On the Safari browser, users will simply need to clear their entire browsing history. 

Given that most students will not be on campus and won’t have access to Xavier’s Wi-Fi network in the coming weeks, students will have to either reset their VPN connection or install the Global Protection VPN software provided by Xavier to access Banner services when connected to a Wi-Fi network that is not Xavier’s. 

To install Global Protection for the first time, students must go to https://vpn.xavier.edu/, enter their Xavier credentials, and follow the on-screen prompts. Once the application is installed, open the application and enter ‘vpn.xavier.edu’ when it asks for the portal address. Users will then be prompted to enter their Xavier credentials and will then be connected to the VPN network.

If you already have the GlobalProtect software installed, press the three lines on the top right of the pop-up and press the ‘Refresh Connection’ option.   

It is also recommended that people should remove existing bookmarks to Banner services as they will likely link to the old Banner web addresses.

In addition to these changes, Banner is now unavailable to use on the Internet Explorer browser application.