Why do I have to register in order to use the on-site public databases and programs?

How do I register for Gene Regulation.com?

How is my registration information used?

May I change my registration information?

What do I need cookies for?

How does Gene Regulation.com access control works?

How do I log in manually?

Do I have to log out manually?

What do I do if I forget my password?

When I try to log in, the system tells me that my account has been disabled. Why?


Other Questions

What system requirements are there for using your site?

How can I contact Gene Regulation.com?

Q) Why do I have to register before I can use the on-site public databases and programs?

Our databases and tools are free only for non-commercial and academic usage. In order to enforce these restrictions, you have to register with all the information necessary to validate your access permission.

Q) How do I register for Gene Regulation.com?

We've made registering for Gene Regulation.com as painless as possible.

Simply visit our 'Registration Page' by following the 'Register' link on our home page and answer a few questions about yourself and you'll be off and running!

Once you've registered, you'll have access to our public databases and programs, every time you log in to our site.

On the 'Registration Page', a HTML form requests the following information:

Personal Data:

• First name

• Last name

• Company/Organization

• Department

• Address

• City

• State or province

• Zip/postal code

• Country

• Phone

• Fax

• Valid email address

• Option to receive Gene Regulation Info material

Account Data:

• Account name you want to use for login

• Password (twice for verification), protecting your account

Optional Data:

• Secret question (in case you forget your password)

• Answer

It is mandatory to fill in those fields that are labeled in bold and marked with an asterisk.

Submit the form using the 'Register' button at the bottom of the page.

The system will perform some sanity check and verifications on the given data. In case of problems, the registration form will be printed again with an additional hint and some instructions on top of the page. Follow the instructions to solve the problem and re-submit the form using again the 'Register' button.

Immediately after you have successfully registered, you will be able to log in.

Later, you will receive an email from our automated email verification authority, containing your account name and UID (only for internal purposes). Please reply to this email as soon as possible.

If your reply will not been seen by the verification system within a certain period of time (usually about two weeks), the specified account will be disabled until successful email verification.

(See also 'When I try to login, the system tells me that my account has been disabled. Why?').

Q) How is my registration information used?

Your registration information is used only to enforce access restriction to our public databases and tools.

No other third-party parties will have access to this kind of information.

Q) May I change my registration information?

This is not yet possible! Sorry!

We intend to offer this service in the near future. Please check back again later this year.

Q) What do I need cookies for?

A cookie is a small amount of information that a Web site sends to your browser. Many Web sites are customized on a person-by-person basis using cookies, so is gene-regulation.com

When your browser receives a cookie, this cookie will be added to an in-memory cookie table.
When you close your browser, usually this table will be discarded along with all the cookies added during the session.

The browser saves the cookies on your hard disk for future use only if the cookie itself contains an expiration date that points to the future. Don't worry! A cookie only takes up a tiny bit of space on your hard disk.

During each startup, the browser checks its permanent cookie database to see, if it contains not-expired cookies and reinitializes the in-memory table accordingly.

If the browser receives a cookie that it has seen before and that contains an expiration date that points to the past, the browser will discard the previously set cookie from the in-memory table and also from the permanent database.

Every time you re-visit a Web site, your browser checks to see if you have any pre-defined preferences (cookies) for that particular site. If one exists, your browser returns the cookie to the Web site so that it can be used there, e.g. to provide account or ticket data to validate access to restricted resources.

Because Gene Regulation.com verifies access using cookies, you will not be able to login, if your browser doesn't support them or if cookies are globally disabled.

See the next question on how Gene Regulation.com access control works.

Q) How does Gene Regulation.com access control works?

An access ticket will be generated by the server after your login data (account and password) have been successfully validated, containing information that will grant access to restricted areas of our site.

This ticket, along with additional data, will be wrapped into a cookie and sent to your browser. This cookie does not contain any life-time or expiration information, and will thus be discarded when the session ends.

The ticket itself, of course, has a limited lifespan (10 hours). If it expires, you will have to login again.

Access to any of the restricted areas will be granted depending on the presence and the validity of the ticket (implying the presence of the cookie). If no ticket can be found or if the ticket is invalid, you will be redirected to the login screen (again and again, until cookie and ticket will be seen).

Q) How Do I log in manually?

Use the login section on our home page and enter account name and password into the corresponding fields.

Press the 'Login' button to log in.

The top line of the login section displays the current status and, if logged in, the active account name.

Q) Do I have to log out manually?

No, not really!

When you close your browser, the cookie along with the ticket will be discarded.

The ticket has also a limited lifespan (10 hours). If it expires, you will be logged out automatically.

Q) What do I do if I forget my password?

Forgetting your password doesn't have to be a time-wasting hurdle for you to jump over just to get back to logging in!

For security reasons we cannot reveal your current password to you but we can allow you to create a new one.
At the login section click on the 'Password forgotten' link.

On the next page, enter your user name and click 'Submit'.

When you originally registered, you were asked for an optional secret question and a corresponding answer. We will prompt you with your secret question and if you provide the correct answer, you will be taken to a page where you can enter a new password.
If you cannot remember your secret answer or if you haven't provided a question during registration, you have to register again using a different account name.

Q) When I try to login, the system tells me that my account has been disabled. Why?

You haven't replied yet to the verification email of our automated email verification authority, so that your account could not have been verified and was thus disabled.

If you still have access to the original verification email, send it to the specified recipient. As soon as the email has been received and processed, your account will be enabled again. We will notify you via email.

Otherwise, send an email containing your registration data to support@genexplain.com, and we will manually enable your account, provided that your data matches our records.

Q) What system requirements are there for using your site?

All you need to use our site is a cookie-enabled visual HTML browser capable of handling redirects.
Usually all modern browsers offer both features offhand.