Dear Families,
Some of our families have experienced some hiccups with technology over the last couple of days. Our families who are Xfinity customers may have experienced issues this week due to a service outage in the Detroit Metropolitan area.
We have received some communications from our teachers and families that students' connections to google classroom are being dropped. After investigating the problems, most of the issues were on Chromebooks and at this time appear to be caused by internet connectivity issues. We will continue to look into all possibilities. I have compiled a few tips to help our families have a better experience.
- If your child is having problems with the device, the first step is to restart the device. To restart your Chromebook, please:
- Press and hold Refresh + tap Power .
- If your child is having trouble loading the page or using google meet, please move the Chromebook closer to your wireless router. There are many factors both inside and outside the home that can affect your wireless signal. Being closer to the router, having a stronger connection, may resolve problems with your child’s device.
- In every home, we have a limited amount of internet bandwidth. Our families with multiple children in the home, with limited bandwidth, may want to conserve bandwidth (limit usage) when children are working on their classwork. Here are a few ways to conserve bandwidth:
- Limit streaming (On-Line Movies, TV shows, Music, etc.) while students are using high bandwidth applications (google meets, educational videos).
- Turn wireless off on other devices (Cell Phones, Tablets, Kindles, etc.) Device apps in the background may be accessing the internet.
- Ensure that Chrome OS is up to date by following instructions below from Google. Google recently released an update. Google releases new minor updates every two to three weeks and major updates approximately every 6 weeks.
- How to update Chromebooks:
- Turn on your Chromebook.
- Sign into the Chromebook.
- Connect your Chromebook to Wi-Fi.
- At the bottom right, select the time.
- Select Settings .
- At the bottom of the left panel, select About Chrome OS.
- Under "Google Chrome OS," you'll find which version of the Chrome operating system your Chromebook uses.
- Select Check for updates.
- If your Chromebook finds a software update, it will start to download automatically.
- How to update Chromebooks:
If your child has not changed their password from the password that we set, please help them change their password by navigating to http://password.melnapschools.com. Some applications will not work correctly with the password that we set. The password that we set is a temporary password. When helping your child change their password, you will have four boxes to type information into. The first box must contain their full school-issued email address. Please type in their student id followed by @studentsmelnapschools.com (ex. [email protected]). The second box must, Old Password, must contain the password that they are currently using. The last two boxes must contain their new password. Please type in their new password in the third box and then again in the fourth box. For students that attend Rogers Early Elementary School (REES) or Allendale Elementary School (AES) the password must be at least four characters long. Please choose a world that your child can remember and type. For students that attend Strong Middle School (SMS) and Melvindale High School (MHS) the password must:
- Be at least 10 characters long
- Should contain Uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and numbers
- Not contain any part of the student’s name
- Not be easy for others to guess
- Best practice is to use at least 3 words. These words can be a phrase. Numbers should be used as well.
If you are experiencing problems and need assistance, please contact the MelNAP Student Help Desk Team by filling out the form located at https://www.melnapschools.com/apps/pages/StudentHelpDesk.
Thank You,
Austin Bright