A majority of the systems that University staff interact with on a daily basis require the use of a web browser. As a result, how you use and maintain the browsers installed on your computer can impact your experience in each of these Duke systems.

 

There are a variety of browsers that users in the Duke community use. These include Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Internet Explorer. (These are just a few of the most common browsers that exist and are used by our students and staff.) Each browser is different, but there are practices common to all that will improve your overall experience.

 

 

Below is a collection of suggestions the SISS Office recommends to make your experience in Duke
systems as trouble-free as possible.

 

Best Practices for everyone
  • Reboot your computer each day
    • This can mean turn it off at night when you leave, or reboot when you come into the office in the morning
  • Delete your browser cache often, for all browsers, at least daily.
    • You can set Mozilla to delete cache when it is closed
    • Ctrl-H in any browser will take you directly to the History page. Delete all cookies/cache for all time periods
  • Add www.siss.duke.edu to you pop-up blocker exception list.
  • Verify you set the “Remember this Device for 72 hours” in Duke Login Multi-Factor page
Security
  • Multi-Factor Authorization setup
    • Most systems supported by the SISS Office require the use of multi-factor authorization. Familiarize yourself with this system, and make sure you have setup multi-factor to allow you to use MFA in a variety of ways. For instance, have MFA set to send authorization codes to a mobile phone OR to an email account. This way, if you are way from a phone, or do not have access to email, you can still access the system.
    • Additional information can be found on the Duke OIT website at https://oit.duke.edu/what-we-do/applications/multi-factor-authentication .
  • 1Password
    • Setup and use 1Password password manager. Once it is setup and enabled, 1Password not only keeps your passwords secure, it can speed up the time it takes to log in and (eventually) re-log in.
    • Additional information can be found at on the Duke OIT Website at https://oit.duke.edu/what-we-do/applications/1password .
  •  PowerUser Tips
    • Use multiple browsers
    • Use specific browser for each database instance (For example user Chrome with PRD, Firefox with TST, and Edge with RPT.

 

Web Browser Management

Best Practices

  • In all browsers, we recommend that you add www.siss.duke.edu to your pop-up blocker exception list and clear your cache as noted below:
    • For Firefox - add the pop-up blocker exception by going to Tools > Options > Content >Exceptions. To clear cache, go to History > Clear Recent History. Select “Everything” from the dropdown, check the box next to Cache and press the “Clear Now” button. Close Firefox, re-launch browser and log back in.
    • For Chrome - go to Settings > Advanced Settings > Content Settings > Pop-Ups and click the “Manage Exceptions” button to add the siss.duke.edu domain. To clear cache, go to Settings > Advanced Settings >Privacy > Clear browsing data > check the box that says “cached images and files”>close box, exit Chrome, re-launch browser and log back in.
    • For Safari - Select “History” > “Clear History” (last option at the bottom) - close Safari, re-launch browser and log back in.