Once upon a time, almost the whole world used only one browser, which was Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, on only one operating system, Microsoft Windows, and on one device, a PC. As we all know, things have changed a lot since those heady days of the nineties; not only has Internet Explorer all but disappeared, there are a plethora of other browsers, devices and operating systems in use. So many that it is virtually impossible for SentLive to firstly test all the possible combinations with our system, but also they are all quite frequently updated, introducing new features and often stricter privacy and security options. Most people are not even aware of these things, but it is becoming increasingly important that they are, as they can have quite profound effects on your browsing experience, and this part of the guide is to try and help you learn how best to alter the settings or preferences of your browser so that SentLive will work well for you.
Browser Settings #
To find out how to access the settings for your browser, normally they are available either in the browser’s menu bar or via an icon that often resembles a cog. This article might be of help to some of you. Once you get into the settings page, there is normally a lot of things you are confronted with, some of which are obvious, but many are not. For the sake of brevity, we will only mention the ones that impact how SentLive runs on your browser.
Cache & Cookies #
These are terms that you may have heard before, without really knowing what they mean, so we will try to explain here; both of them refer to information that is stored in your browser to make sites load faster and remember things like log in details or other preferences. The cache is essentially a memory that stores images, text, colours and the overall look of each page, so if you have visited a page before, the browser will load the stored version; for many pages this is perfectly fine, as they do not change at all. However for pages that have content that changes often, this can be a problem, as you will not get to see the updated content unless either the website itself forces the browser to refresh the page, or you refresh or reload the page yourself – however this does not always work. Most, if not all, browsers, have several settings that can help avoid the problem – for example, a setting to clear the cache when you close the browser. These settings are often found in the Privacy and Security section.
Cookies are similar, but these are designed to be only temporary most of the time; a lot of people get worried when they hear about cookies, but virtually all of them are benign and only intended to make your experience on a website better, and very few of them contain anything to be worried about – things like your username, the date and time, your general location (as in the country you are in), your IP address etc. Also things like the last page visited, frequency of visit etc. Browsers are generally already set to clear these when you close the window, but sometimes you will need to clear these and the cache yourself, particularly if you are experiencing a problem with a site. Click here to see how to do this on the most used browsers.
Please bear in mind that clearing cookies will normally log you out of any sites you are logged into. Clearing cache should not do this. SentLive is set up to keep you logged in unless you specifically log out or clear cookies, as long as when you first log in the ‘Remember Me’ option is ticked, so even if you haven’t visited the site in a while, you should still be logged in.
SentLive on Mobile Devices #
As you are hopefully aware, we recommend that you install our Progressive Web App (PWA) on your mobile device. However your mobile browser still ‘controls’ how this behaves, so the settings in both your browser and your device may need to be tweaked to ensure optimum operation. Some of this is achieved when you respond to the messages that are shown to you, particularly when you first start using SentLive, such as allowing location detection and notifications. Responding ‘No’ to these won’t stop SentLive working, but it will impair your experience while using it. These can be changed at any time by accessing the browser settings, which will have default settings for all sites but also settings for individual sites; on mobile devices these can normally be accessed via the device settings or preferences. Unfortunately, as mentioned elsewhere in this guide, iOS devices still do not offer full support for PWAs, so certain options are not available yet, but are gradually expected to appear as each new iOS update occurs.
Please contact us by clicking here if you are having any issues while using SentLive – we will be happy to try and assist you, and more importantly, see if there is anything we can change from our side to improve things.
