Whitelisting Zinc domains

Learn more about how to troubleshoot access issues and whitelist Zinc domains

Karthik Chandrasekariah avatar
Written by Karthik Chandrasekariah
Updated over a week ago

Troubleshooting:

If you try to access Zinc and end up faced with a blank screen, or are blocked from accessing an article straight from Zinc, the issue may be that your school or district has implemented a safety program to block certain websites. These programs protect students from errant content.

Frequently, if the program doesn't recognize the website domain, it will automatically block the website.

If this is the case, you'll want to gather some information before reaching out to your IT department:

1. Go to a website like www.whatismybrowser.org and make sure your browser is up-to-date and on the following list:

  • Mac | OS 10+ | Latest Safari (11.0+), Chrome and Firefox Browsers

  • Windows | OS 7+ | Latest Chrome, Firefox and Edge Browsers

  • Chromebooks | Latest Chrome Browsers

If your browser is up to date, move to Step 2. If your browser is not up to date or is not included on the list above, try updating your browser or downloading a compatible browser.

2. Make a note whether the block is happening on just student devices, or teacher devices as well. You can also test different pieces of content and make a note for the result of those tests too. Some IT departments really appreciate documentation like screen shots and specific URLs, and including that might speed up the process.

3. Reach out to your school or district's IT support or IT department contacts and share with them:

  • The browser information from point 1 above

  • The notes you made about access issues, screen shots, and any relevant URLs

  • When you email your IT support, copy and paste the URL to this page, so they can review our Help Center article and use some pertinent information about our domain whitelist.
    Link to this page:  http://help.zinclearninglabs.com/frequently-asked-questions-faqs/whitelisting-zinc-domains

  • You can also include a link to our Article Whitelist Spreadsheet

For IT Support and IT Departments

Add the URLs from our Zinc Article Whitelist to make sure your teachers and students have access to all of the features of Zinc.

NOTE: The Zinc Article Whitelist is updated multiple times a month to reflect that we add new articles on a weekly basis.

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