How to Access the Cisco Networking Academy with your Mac
I recently enrolled in the Cisco Networking Academy at the local community college and all of the curriculum taught in the classroom is available in a completely transparent manner on the Cisco Networking Academy website. If you’re a Mac user however, you’re going to run into browser compatibility issues. It appears that none of the mainstream browsers on the Mac such as Safari and Firefox are able to play nice with the academy’s JSP-based site. After trying to log into the academy, the browser dies at the redirect, http://cisco.netacad.net/cnams/public/Checker.jsp.
Having been observant while logging into the academy site on a Windows machine with Internet Explorer, Checker.jsp checks to see if you’re using either a MS or Netscape-based browser and once it meets those requirements, it than redirects to http://cisco.netacad.net/cnams/public/Login.jsp.
So if Mac users select the latter link, this will effectively bypass the browser check and will let you log into the site.
Since I’m not even halfway through the first of four classes in the CCNA certification sequence, I’m not sure if there will be anything Windows-specific that would prompt such browser restrictions, as the curriculum appears to be predominantly written in Flash.
October 7, 2006 at 4:28 pm
I tried this from Safari but I still get redirected… new suggestions?
October 7, 2006 at 4:40 pm
Hmm, are you sure that you’re using this link? I just tried it several times and I’m able to login without any problem:
http://cisco.netacad.net/cnams/public/Login.jsp
And I’m running OS X 10.4.8 and Safari 2.0.4
October 12, 2006 at 8:27 pm
Hi all — I’m having the same problem using Opera on Fedora Linux— this was working OK last week. I suspect Cisco has changed the page over last weekend. If I turn on the debugging in
the Opera browser and get loads of css errors…
You should all complain to Cisco at this number 1-888-327-1116
Please feel free to contact me should you stumble onto a solution.
Best regards, Gary
October 13, 2006 at 4:24 pm
It still works for me. Once again to reiterate, are you using the below URL to access the site?
http://cisco.netacad.net/cnams/public/Login.jsp
I have also verified this to work in Opera 9.02 for OS X with no additional configuration necessary. Perhaps you should try to update Opera on your system or just use Firefox, but I think it’s safe to say that it’s something on your end that’s causing the problem.
November 2, 2006 at 8:22 am
Thanks, I ran into this problem on firefox 2.0 in Ubuntu Edgy… weird.
November 7, 2006 at 10:38 pm
greetz! that works well!
December 5, 2006 at 4:42 am
I ran into this problem with Firefox on Fedora Core 6, and browsing to http://cisco.netacad.net/cnams/public/Login.jsp worked just as you said. Thanks!
December 5, 2006 at 4:57 pm
it works! thanks!
December 6, 2006 at 3:36 pm
Thank you! It works perfectly under Opera. Someone get ahold of Cisco and tell them to let alternative browsers access their academy!
December 7, 2006 at 5:55 pm
Suddenly today the usual my all browsers (Firefox, Opera, Konqueror) stopped working past the Checker.jsp. I’m using Kubuntu Edgy. Sure is annoying, I’m going to contact Cisco an inform about this.
December 8, 2006 at 9:41 am
Ok it’s working now.
December 18, 2006 at 3:35 pm
Working fine with Firefox 1.5 – Thanks!
January 3, 2007 at 6:21 am
Thanks a lot! Saved me from going back to my ancient dell.
January 7, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Great post. I don’t have windows at home and this has saved me a lot of messing about!
Thanks
January 9, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Been having the same problem with my macbook using both firefox and safari. A tech support rep says it has something to do with the new version of the flash plugin on safari, but did not mention anything about the checker.jsp screen. Talk about useless.
January 17, 2007 at 10:58 pm
Works great with Firefox, Safari isnt working, but I can live with Firefox i guess! Thanks again!
January 18, 2007 at 3:24 am
It does work with Safari. What you have to do is turn off (untick) the pop-up blocker (Safari > Block Pop-Up Windows or Apple+K) before accessing the curriculum materials. Otherwise, you’ll get a blank screen. This is also a good thing to check out if you’re having problems with other browsers.
January 18, 2007 at 11:07 pm
Great advice worked for me!!! Finally can log in, tried to ask CISCO Support, it sucks by the way.. Anyways thanks for the tip!
February 6, 2007 at 9:40 pm
Cool.10x.It take me a lot of time to install plug-ins,flash player and etc.
February 14, 2007 at 4:37 am
Using linux and firefox here (same problem with opera though). Your solution works perfect, Thanks !!
P.S. I contacted Cisco.com technical support to inform them of the problem with Checker.jsp, I’ll repost when I get an answer.
February 20, 2007 at 11:32 am
Thx for link man… I really hate booting XP… i’ll definately contact cisco about this
February 20, 2007 at 11:55 am
a copy of my letter to cisco:
Why is it that when i try to login to my “http://cisco.netacad.net” page to access my class notes that my browser stops at “http://cisco.netacad.net/cnams/public/Checker.jsp”?
I know why, your restricting access only to Internet Explorer users…
I’ve tried as many before me by using web browsers like: Safari, Firefox, Opera, and Camino too name a few too no avail…
For a while (about 7+ months ago) I could access it fine thru Safari (as others could via their nominated browsers) and then it all stopped, giving me a blank page at your browser “Checker.jsp”…
For those of us that use and study Unix/Linux at school (for example), we have to go off looking for PC with IE (with mixed results)…
Browsers are there to give us a choice, whether it be bias, or whether it something were restricted too.
In my case Micr$oft stopped supporting IE for Mac over 4 years ago so I have wide selection of applications that thankfully don’t fall under the Micr0$oft tree.
For those of us affected, we ask/need/want you to ratify this issue.
I hope you understand my frustration, as my education is being affected.
-Zoran Bogunovic
February 24, 2007 at 5:45 am
Thank you so much about the instructions to log in on that page. I’m using Firefox 2.0.0.2 and MacOs X 10.4.8 and now i can access to my Cisco Networking Academy courses without problem using that link: http://cisco.netacad.net/cnams/public/Login.jsp
I’ll put a trackback on my blog if you don’t mind.
Thanks and cheers from Spain!!!
Kernelpanic.
February 27, 2007 at 11:22 pm
http://cisco.netacad.net/cnams/dispatch
is the link ive always used, slightly shorter than your version easier to remember too =)
March 6, 2007 at 4:13 am
the shorter the better, thanks for the tip!
March 7, 2007 at 1:57 am
I used the original link just now, http://cisco.netacad.net/cnams/public/Login.jsp and it worked just fine for me. So to anyone attempting to get this repaired, please give Cisco a call. It would appear this has been an issue on their end for quite some time. The more people we get to complain about this issue the quicker the resolutions.
March 26, 2007 at 11:15 pm
KDE’s browser Konqueror still works fine. Anyway, thank you Julius, now I can use Firefox to access Academy site.
March 28, 2007 at 11:12 am
Thank you Julius
I recall i had the same problem last year with safari although i was able to login ok with firefox. If i remember correctly it was something to do with toc at the end of the link. I have reported this again to cisco and hopefully they will
endevour to resolve this problem for mac users in the future.
March 28, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Thanks for the info, my girlfrield has a mac (Currently on it now!) and she’s always wanted to be able to do this as its part of her course.
Thanks again!
Also, thanks SteveH for the shorter link!
April 3, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Working fine with Firefox 2.0 and Opera 9 running on Mandriva 2007 – Thanks!
April 5, 2007 at 10:04 am
I need the a user name and password to login
I will be very happy…
Thanx
April 6, 2007 at 5:57 am
Hahaha, good one! You’ll actually need to join an academy to get in!
May 6, 2007 at 2:54 am
wow!
i soooooo thankful for this post.. it helped me get into the netacad’s site
i’ve been using my cousin’s laptop all these time due to the Checker.jsp problem.
thank you soooooo much!
millions of thanks!
October 15, 2008 at 2:34 am
Julius-O,
Your link works fine. I ran into the problem with Firefox 3.0 on WinXp Sp2. I could not get the Lab Activities to Load in browser window using Adobe Reader 9.0, so I rolled back to Full 7.0 version and started to experience the same problem. Stalled at Checker.jsp, then start using your recommendations for now.
November 18, 2008 at 8:24 pm
u suck
November 22, 2008 at 11:20 am
Thx! Cisco’s intertwining with Microsoft is getting out of control and obviouslly has a ( silly little) mind of it’s own.
November 24, 2008 at 11:10 am
this just worked on my Centos 5 machine… i am now also able to view the exploration window which i could not do previously.