Verti-Gro Help Center

This isn't a help center for the Verti-Gro products and services, it is rather a technical help resource for our web site usage. If you are unsure about certain features on this site, what some things mean, or just need guidance, this is the first place to look for possible answers, before contacting the webmaster. This is similar to a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) area, if you still have questions that aren't answered here, don't hesitate to tell us about it.

Context sensitive info, read below box for other topics

Loging on

Loging on can make things easier for returning customers, because your information will already be filled in when you are checking out. This speeds up your check-out process and eliminates having to enter your information every time you make a purchase. Using such a registration/login system is also necessary to reduce the possibilities of fake orders being submitted by malicious users.

Used in conjunction with the Cookies, your login can be remembered by your browser when you check the box "Remember login", which allows you to return to the site and not have to login again, even when coming back days later.

If you don't remember your login information, you can use the lost login tool to retrieve that.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Both the "User / Login Name" and the "Password" are case sensitive, keep this in mind when loging on. Spaces are also allowed, and several words can be used as a Password.

Also important: If you are having difficulty loging back on later and haven't been able to use the lost login tool to get your login information, please do not re-register under a slightly different name. Instead, let us know and we will assist you to get back in.

Read more below about the Cookies.

Shopping cart questions

The mini cart in the left column:

The mini cart shows a summary of your selected items. For a full view of the cart with more details and to remove items or change quantities, click on the "View Cart" button. There, you can make the changes you wish, then recalculate the totals.

The checkout page:

The checkout page gives a last look at your purchase before finalizing it by moving on to payment processing, which is done with encryption on a secure server (see more below). The secure payment processing page looks different from the Verti-Gro site. This is normal, as it isn't located on the same system and is a standard form used by many other sites using this provider's processing service. When you are looking at the secure payment form page, your browser should display a padlock or say that "This connection is Secure" (or both) and the address of the page should start with "https" instead of "http".

Please note: Verti-Gro, Inc. is in the process of securing an internet-based merchant services provider to handle the secure online payments in real time. In the mean time, our credit card payments are handled manually. No credit card information is stored on the server, avoiding any possibility of that information being stolen.

Encryption (SSL):

The important thing to understand about encryption is what it really needs to protect. When SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is used to encrypt data traveling between your browser and the server where a web site is hosted, everything gets encrypted, including pictures, cookies and other bits of information such as login information or other types of information entered in forms then sent by clicking on a link or submit button. Obviously since most of what ends up encrypted actually didn't need to be, there is a lot of extra overhead introduced which slows everything down, especially for users still using modems, because encrypting data increases the amount of "bytes" transmitted. To strike the right balance between security and usability, it's important to use encryption only where actually needed and not everywhere. That's why we only keep the use of encryption to the final step in the checkout, which is where the actual payment is processed and sensitive information such as credit card numbers get collected and transmitted.

Cookies

Using Cookies with the Verti-Gro site:

Turning on the cookies is purely optional, the site uses them if they're turned on, and will still function normally if the Cookies are turned off. They do help a little if turned on, they can improve the shopping cart system, mostly in case of difficulties with dial-up connections dropping and browser crashes, or simply if the browser is closed and then reopened. The most useful feature provided by the cookies is the ability to make the browser remember the user login information, which allows staying logged in even if the browser is closed then reopened or when coming back to the site on an other day. See the "Loging on" info. No user tracking information is collected on this site and no sensitive information is stored in them. We suggest turning on the cookies to make the site more user friendly. Unlike some advertising sites such as double-click, cookies are not used to track users on this site.

What are Cookies?

Cookies are safe to use and do not pose any security risks. They only store a piece of information and allows for retrieving it later. If you are using MS Internet Explorer, you can even see the actual content of a cookie and other information such as which site put it there and when it expires. Cookies have an expiration date and are deleted when that time is reached.

JavaScript, Plug-Ins and Style Sheets

Is JavaScript really needed?

JavaScript helps improve the site and make it more functional, however you are not obligated to turn it on. We designed this site in a way that it is still fully functional without it, although some things will be faster and easier with Javascript turned on. For example, the pull down menus will not work and you will have to navigate your way through more pages to get to the information you want. The roll over effects on the buttons will not work either, however this isn't a necessary feature for functionality. Some pages make rather extensive use of Javascript for extended functionality and although having Javascript turned off should not prevent proper function, we suggest you turn it on. Having Javascript turned on on this site is not dangerous in any way, no malicious use of any browser features are made.

Style Sheets (CSS):

This site makes use of style sheets, for the pull down menus and other text formatting as well as presentation. Turning off the style sheets will not hamper any functionality of the site, it will only make it less attractive and make the navigation a little less convenient. Old browsers, such as the pre-version 4 of the major browsers, do not support style sheets, some newer browsers may only have partial support for this, they will eventually have full support soon. Browsers such as Icab (for mac) do not yet have this full support (as of June 2002) and Opera 5.0 has only partial support to date, the pull down menus do not work in such browsers.

Browser Plug-Ins:

This site makes no use of any Plug-Ins, you can turn them off or not have them installed at all and it will not make any difference.

However, some users have been experiencing problems with their pdf plug-in when trying to get pdf files off this site (or any other site). Some browsers come with a pdf plug-in which allows viewing pdf files from within a browser window instead of downloading those pdf files for offline viewing later, and which usually comes preconfigured to handle the pdf files without asking anything. Some of those users have experienced malfunctions such as total system lockups or simply nothing happening at all. This type of behavior seems to be confined to the windows platform.

Those users having such problems should try to upgrade their plug-in to a more stable version, re-install that plug-in or disable it in their browser. This type of behavior isn't due to the pdf files themselves or a web site, the browser plug-in is the cause of those problems and it must be either upgraded when possible or disabled to avoid lockups.

For those users who don't know how to disable their plug-ins or locate, download and install an updated plug-in, an other quick fix (simple workaround) is to not click on a link to get a pdf file, but rather to use a "right click" (for windows only) on that link and choose the option to download the pdf file instead of viewing it, then view that pdf in the adobe acrobat reader separately from the browser. It is also possible to try other browsers, such as Netscape, Opera, Mozilla, Firefox or any other that may or may not have the pdf plug-in installed or may not have that stability issue.

We suggest you allow JavaScript and the Style Sheets to function, for the best experience. We also suggest allowing the Cookies, as they also improve some functionalities, such as the shopping cart and more importantly to allow your browser to remember your login information.

Also we suggest you use a rather recent browser, as many older browsers do not fully support all the features such as Javascript, Layers, Style Sheets and some support it but do not function properly. Most recent browsers should work properly. We do not design for any specific browser, we try to make sure this site works in any browser of your choice. Let us know if you are having problems with a recent browser, but please be specific.