What does that red connection error message in the webclient mean?

The webclient tries to stay connected to our servers so that you can reliably chat, and there are a variety of connectivity tests in use to maintain that connection and repair it when needed.  The various red error messages help describe specifically where a problem is occurring:

• Browser is offline
  This is a very low-level error that generally means:
  • The actual browser is set to not use the network in one way or another OR
  • The web browser's own internal network connectivity checks are failing for some reason.
  • Web browser extensions related to conserving network bandwidth may trigger this if they work by disabling network connectivity to tabs that are not on top.
     
• No Internet Access or Internet disruption detected
  To check for an Internet connection, the webclient attempts to download a file called cleardot.gif from www.google.com.  If that test fails, you may have a general problem with Internet connectivity and will not be able to staff LibraryH3lp reliably.  However, it is possible that you can reach LibraryH3lp but not Google and so will be able to staff successfully even when that error message appears. 
  • If you are using Firefox, you may get this message if you've enabled strict tracking protection because the built-in strict tracking protection prevents the webclient from downloading the cleardot.gif file from www.google.com.  It is possible to disable tracking protection for the LibraryH3lp webclient through the site information pop-up to avoid getting the internet access error.  See screenshot below:
    
     
• Refresh this page in your browser
  This message appears when the webclient is trying to reconnect.  It might be faster for you to manually reload the page instead, since this will attempt a fresh new connection right away.  When the page reloads, any active chats that you had open will be gone.  If you did not close them (with the "x" at the top of the chat window), you can recover your chats by heading to the Chat History page and transferring them to yourself.
   
• Cannot reach LibraryH3lp
  The webclient is unable to reach the LibraryH3lp server specifically. This may be a network connectivity issue between LibraryH3lp servers and yours. Or potentially LibraryH3lp may be experiencing issues, check our blog to see if there any active status alerts.
   
• Lost connection. Retrying...
  The webclient cannot reach the LibraryH3lp server for one of the reasons listed above and is attempting to reconnect.

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