Google Apps Issues and Solutions

There are so many ways we can benefit from using Google Apps for Education, but the system is not perfect. I am sure we all run into some issues along the way and perhaps by sharing Google problems we can also find some solutions.

For example your browser makes a difference; Internet Explorer does not support some of the functions related to charts in spreadsheets and in drawings, so it is better to use Firefox or Google Chrome.

An issue I have not been able to solve is that the curse sometimes appears to be in one location in a document but what you type is inserted in a different place. I've had this occur at least a dozen times.

Tags: google apps

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Roger Nevin on December 21, 2010 at 6:47am

Hi,

We have been using Google Apps for Education for 3 years. It has been great.

You are right. The browser does make a difference.

We use Chrome. An easy way to install it or even run it using a thumb drive is to go to portableapps.com and use that version.

Permalink Reply by Kristen Beck on December 21, 2010 at 10:58am

I have the same problem with the cursor when editing a google doc. Any ideas how to prevent this??? Is it an explorer thing??

Permalink Reply by Roger Grant on January 5, 2011 at 11:00am

I really don't know if this is a browser issue. I was hoping that someone in our group would know.

Permalink Reply by Roger Grant on May 25, 2011 at 8:03am

Is anyone getting "Trying to reach google" error message?

Our school is having severe issues using Google Apps for Education. When trying to edit documents students get a message across the top saying "Trying to reach Google.com" all controls are grayed out and they can't do anything. Logging out and back in only helps once in a while. Doesn't seem to matter which browser we are using. We are not blocking google docs.

Please share your experiences and any insights you may have. We are at the point of considering dropping Google Apps next year.

Permalink Reply by Scott Kepner on June 2, 2011 at 6:30pm

Our students ran into similar issues. We are now downloading Chrome and have experienced far less problems. Internet Explorer just does not work well with Google Apps.

Permalink Reply by Roger Grant on June 2, 2011 at 6:41pm

You're right google and IE do not work well together. We have used both Firefox and Chrome and have fewer problems but still encounter the "trying to reach google" issue.

Permalink Reply by Scott Kepner on June 2, 2011 at 7:16pm

Roger, I am wondering if it could be something with your district's filtering software? Do you get the same message if you get into the doc at home or outside your schools network? We had some serious challenges with our filtering software and google apps (we use M86 filtering software). I know Google is constantly adding servers which have new IP addresses and can create a mess with filters. Actually some of your district could be on a server with an IP address that your filter recognizes and others might have been moved to a new server with a new IP address. Might be something for your tech folks to look at.

Permalink Reply by Roger Grant on June 2, 2011 at 7:21pm

We use M86 also. Do you know any specifics on what changes had to be made to resolve your problems?

Permalink Reply by Scott Kepner on June 2, 2011 at 7:27pm

I will check with my tech folks tomorrow and get the details on what challenges / solutions they have done with M86 regarding Google Apps. If needed maybe we can get our tech folks together to discuss in greater detail.

Permalink Reply by Roger Grant on June 3, 2011 at 4:26am

Thanks Scott this is really helpful.

Permalink Reply by Scott Kepner on June 5, 2011 at 6:39pm

Roger, I sent you a message thru this site about getting our tech folks together (my system administer would be happy to help you out and network with your tech folks that use the same products as our district). Also here is a link from Google about server and firewall settings that we used.. http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=1211661

Permalink Reply by Roger Grant on June 5, 2011 at 7:30pm

Scott, thank you very much. I'll try to get a contact within our IT group.