You see an error message reading 'Login failed! The username and password combination you entered has not been recognised...'

Once you have entered your username and password and attempted to log in, you may see this error message, as pictured. If this is what's happening, it means that the details you typed in are not valid. Try again, checking the following:

• that you have typed the details in correctly;
• that you haven't accidentally added in any spaces or punctuation;
• that you are using upper and lower case letters exactly as indicated on your letter/invoice/magazine;
• that you have not mistaken 0s for Os, or 1s for ls, and so on;
• that the number of asterisks or circles showing in the password box matches the number of characters in your password - if it doesn't, delete them all and start again.

If you are a subscriber, and after trying all of the above, your password still doesn't work, contact or phone 0845 680 5317 to speak to our subscriptions management team (Monday to Friday, office hours only). They will be able to check that you are using the correct password.

The password file is updated twice each week. If you have only recently received confirmation of your subscription, you should try again later in the week. Sometimes the letters are sent out a little ahead of the online update taking place, so it may be that your password is still awaiting activation. Try using the temporary password printed in the magazine in the meantime. They're printed on the page-spread inside the front or back cover.

You see an error message reading 'Important Message. Sorry your membership has expired...'

If you see this error message after you have entered your username and password and attempted to log in, it means that you are using a password that is now out of date. If you are a subscriber, you should contact or phone 0845 680 5317 to speak to our subscriptions management team (Monday to Friday, office hours only), who will be able to check whether or not you need to renew your subscription and process this for you as required. If you are using login details from the magazine you need to buy a copy with a cover date that covers the current month to access the site. For example, if you are trying to access the site in March 2008 you need to use the details from the March/April 2008 magazine.

The login page just refreshes, with no error message, as if you had not entered your details; or you see 'Return to members area' where the login form should be, even though you have not yet logged in.

If the page does not change at all after you attempt to log in, and you cannot see any error message, then it is likely that your browser or firewall is rejecting the ROOTS cookie.

Cookie problems may also cause the site to 'think' that you are logged in when you are not, presenting you with the 'Return to members area' button but failing to connect when you hit the page, as you have not actually yet logged in.

A cookie is required for the login process to work properly. Please read the page About cookies to find out more about cookies and how to resolve this issue.

The screen goes blank and / or you get an error message telling you that the page cannot be found or the site cannot be contacted.

This indicates a connection problem. Sometimes choosing to 'Refresh' or 'Reload' will solve the problem, if the issue was only temporary. If that doesn't help, and the problem is still occurring after ten minutes or so, you should check your ISP's (Internet Service Provider's) status line or web page to see if they are experiencing any problems. If they are, then you will not be able to access the site until they have resolved the issue.

Sometimes your ISP may be able to serve up many web pages from a cache (local store of files), and may appear to be operating well, but may not be able to serve up 'live' pages efficiently. The ROOTS help and information pages can be cached, so you may be able to see these, but the password protected area contains 'live' pages and so you may not be able to access these if your ISP is busy. There can also be general 'traffic jams' on the Internet at busy times, and so often the only answer is to try again later, when the problem is likely to have cleared up.

Finally, it is possible that the ROOTS web server is experiencing problems. You can contact us to find out if that is the case. When we become aware of any problems at our end, we post an announcement to the 'Web issues' forum, with the title 'Status', so that readers can check back to find out what has happened.

Why doesn't my password let me login to write messages on the forums?

If you are using the password that is printed inside the magazine, you will not be able to use the forums to write messages for others to read. This is because this username and password is shared by a large number of readers - all those who do not subscribe. For a forum to work properly, each user must have individual login details, and at present we only able to provide individual logins for those users who have chosen to subscribe.

If you are a subscriber, and your password allows you to access the resources but not the forums, please contact us.