Zotero website logins getting throttled during classroom activity

troy.kozee
I'm teaching Zotero use as part of a classroom activity, and I'm finding our website logins are getting throttled/locked out. I imagine it's because we're behind a NAT.

What advice can you give for me? How many students can I log in at once? How long of an interval should I wait? While my class uses Windows, my students use Chromebooks for most of their school work, and Zotero's website (as opposed to the desktop app) is critical to that experience.

Thanks!
  • dstillman
    Multiple incorrect login attempts from the same IP address will get throttled, yes.

    If you email support@zotero.org with the external IP address in question and when this was happening, we can take a look at the access pattern and see if there's anything we can do here.

    We'll be rolling out 2FA support soon, and that may let us relax the throttling limits a bit by using automatic email-based verification as an alternative.
  • troy.kozee
    Ooof. Getting 20 high school freshmen to enter a password correctly on their first (or third) time... is a low probability event.

    I'll give it a go when school resumes on Tuesday. I'll send in a support email if we get throttled again. Thanks!
  • adamsmith
    Are you sure Zotero is the right tool for 9th graders? I'm all for introducing students to the research process early, but especially since students won't be able to take advantage of much of Zotero's most powerful features without Zotero installed, wouldn't it make more sense to orient them towards the (passwordless) ZoteroBib (https://zbib.org/ ) instead?
  • troy.kozee
    In terms of collecting, saving, and organizing sources, Zotero is just lightyears ahead of any other free tool I've found (though I'm happy to take suggestions :) ). That functionality alone is worth taking a few days, and the web connector doesn't need the desktop app to add sources to the library. The students also have access to several EBSCO products through our state.

    Citations and works cited is a little more of a mixed bag if you're stuck on Chromebook (and I do show them zbib), but in many students have access to a desktop PC at home.
Sign In or Register to comment.