Getting Started
Q: How do I start placing my online order?
Q: Can I upload from my Mac / Linux PC?
A: Yes! Just go direct to our website and click ‘Order Now’. If your
Mac / Linux system has Adobe’s Flash 8 (or later) installed, you’ll be
able to upload using our integrated bulk uploader system. You can
select dozens of images in one go, and then watch as they are uploaded
from within the same simple web page – so there’s no need to install
anything on to your computer.
If you don’t have Flash support on your Mac / Linux PC, you can still
upload your photos – the system automatically goes back to a failsafe
method so you can select and upload your images in batches of five at a
time.
Q: How long should it take to upload my photos?
A: The upload time is dependent on your internet connection speed, and the size of photos you want to upload. If you have a slow internet connection, large file sizes or just lots and lots of photos this will take a while – please just make a cup of tea and enjoy watching your computer working away for you.
Q: What web browser should I use?
A: The Web Kiosk will work with a variety of different web browsers. However, for the best possible browsing experience, please make sure you are using the latest available version of the browser. Best of all is 'Firefox', a freely available browser suitable for Mac, PC and Linux. It is much faster and more secure than Internet explorer, and easier to use. It is available from www.Mozilla.com
Order Processing - FAQs
Q: I was expecting an email from you and it hasn’t arrived. Where is it?
A: There are two very common reasons for this:
- Your email program may have mistakenly classified it as spam because you’ve not written to us before or added us to your address book. Please check it’s not just sitting in your spam folder.
- You mistyped your email address when placing the order. Yes, no-one ever thinks they would have done this, but it is very common in cases of missing email. Please just phone the lab and they’ll be happy to advise you on your order’s status – and tell you exactly what spelling of email address you supplied. It would help if you have the date and time (and ideally the order ID) of your order available when you call.
Q: Help - I've made a mistake and now need to modify / cancel the order I have just placed. What should I do?
A: If it's the middle of the night, and you've only just placed the order, this won't be a problem - please just email the lab explaining the problem and we'll be happy to help.
We try to reply to emails as promptly as possible - but we also print orders as promptly as possible, so please email us ASAP or there's a strong chance we'll have already printed your work.
Q: I've received an email from you talking about a possible 'Copyright issue'. What does this mean?
A: UK law requires us to make reasonable efforts to ensure we don't print work in contravention of a photographer's copyright. Once we have suitable confirmation that this isn't the case, and your work will be printed as normal.
If you are a professional photographer and regularly print to work with us, you might want to discuss this issue with our lab staff and perhaps leave a letter on file confirming this.
Downloading and using the Desktop Kiosk:
Q: After downloading the Desktop Kiosk I get the following message
when I try to install it: “NSIS Error. The installer you are trying to
use is corrupted or incomplete.”
A: The installer that you have downloaded has become damaged in
transfer. This is due to a partial failure or glitch in your broadband
line during the download. Please just re-download the installer and try
again.
Q: When I try to run the Desktop Kiosk, I get the following error
message: “DesktopKiosk.exe Application Error the application failed to
initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click on OKto terminate the
application.”
A: Your PC does not have a working version of Microsoft’s .NET system
installed. The .NET library can be downloaded direct from Microsoft via
the following link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856EACB-4362-4B0D-8EDD-AAB15C5E04F5&displaylang=en
Background information: .NET is included with Windows XP Service Pack 2
and Windows Vista as standard. It is also included in the Desktop Kiosk
installer which you downloaded. You should have been prompted to
install it along with the DK if it was missing from your system. It is
possible however that you might not have sufficient privileges to
install .NET or the pre-existing installation may be corrupt.
Q: Why does my PC bring up a warning message from my firewall? What should I do?
A: Whenever new software on your PC tries to send or receive information via the internet, the firewall will try to let you know what is happening and ask your approval. This is perfectly normal - and the firewall manufacturers like to show you that their product is active!
All you need to do is tell the firewall to 'permit' the Desktop Kiosk ("DesktopKiosk.exe") to access the internet and everything will then work normally. If you don't do this, the Desktop Kiosk won't be able to access the internet to send your order to us.
Q: I get an error message saying ""ERROR: can't convert nil into String" after uploading from the Desktop Kiosk. What does this mean?
Q: I'm having problems part way through uploading my order from the Desktop Kiosk. I do not get an error message - it just stops part way.
- Avoid using wireless networks - they are notoriously wobbly if wireless reception is marginal or temporarily interupted
- Do an independent test of your broadband connection - can you stream audio/video without interuption? Whilst your internet connection might work on everyday web browsing, if it (or your internet service provider) is having problems these are much more likely to be noticed when uploading or downloading large quantities of data.
- Make sure you've got correct (and working) ADSL filters on every socket of your telephone system. Even just one telephone plugged into your broadband line without a filter can make a huge difference to the stability of your internet connection. You can often ask BT to run tests and offer advice on this if you wish.
Other Methods of upload
Q: Can I upload from my Mac / Linux PC?
A: Yes! Just go direct to our website and click ‘Order Now’. If your Mac / Linux system has Adobe’s Flash 8 (or later) installed, you’ll be able to upload using our integrated bulk uploader system. You can select dozens of images in one go, and then watch as they are uploaded from within the same simple web page – so there’s no need to install anything on to your computer.If you don’t have Flash support on your Mac / Linux PC, you can still upload your photos – the system automatically goes back to a failsafe method so you can select and upload your images in batches of five at a time.
Q: Ok, I understand that – but just how fast can I expect transfers to be?
A: This really depends on the speed of your internet connection – dial
up is possible (but very slow), 512kbs broadband is reasonable, but
1Mbs or greater is ideal. Remember that your upload and download speeds
are different – your ISP allows you to download data faster than they
allow you to send it.
Typical upload speeds through the desktop kiosk on a reasonable
broadband internet connection would be approximately 20-40kbps.
Additionally, the desktop kiosk software optimizes the photos to make
sure you don’t upload unnecessary data and hence to reduce the total
time to upload still further.
Q: I’ve got an error report stating that “MD5 checksum doesn't match checksum provided by client!”
A: What has happened is that your internet connection has lost or
corrupted a tiny bit of data whilst uploading your photos. This is
rare, but it does happen – especially on variable quality phone lines
or internet connections. This tiny bit of data could make all the
difference between a great photo and garbage, so our software has a
clever technique which compares what it was expecting to received from
your desktop kiosk with what it actually gets. It goes through every
bit of the uploaded data to make sure it is consistent. This process is
called comparing checksums.
To rectify the problem, you’ll have to upload again – sorry! If the
data our Web Kiosk receives from your PC / internet connection is
inconsistent or has bits missing, this is the only safe way to make
sure you get the photos you want.
The good news is that you don’t need to load and re-crop all your
photos again – you can just go back into your desktop kiosk and reload
the order in ‘Load Previous Order’ on the start screen.
Before you do this, we recommend you disconnect from the internet,
reconnect, then ensure that browsing and streaming of audio/video
services works seamlessly. This is a good layman's method for verifying
a healthy connection. Satisfied that the connection is stable, you can
reattempt your upload. If you cannot stream media or the error messages
persist in our software, then you need to contact your Internet service
provider.
Q: Can you give me some more detail on how your checksum system works?
A: What our system does is:
1. Client: Take a checksum against the bundle of photos in the order.
2. Client: Send checksum ahead to the server.
3. Client: Commence transfer of photo bundle.
4. Client: Transfer completes.
5. Server: Calculate the checksum for the bundle that it has received.
6. Server: Compare the checksum ( from 6) to that received in 2.
7. Server: If checksums do not match this usually* indicates that the
bundle was corrupted in transport (most likely cause: dodgy ADSL
connection).
*There is a corner case where the checksum itself might become
corrupted during transfer (at stage 2), but the chances of this are
slim it's a tiny blob of data. We do mitigate against this scenario by
re-requesting the checksum from the client if stage 7 fails to match.
The chances of two successive corruptions of the checksum transmission
are immeasurably slight, therefore failure to match for a second time
is conclusive of a corrupt upload.
Q: Does your software work with support Windows Vista?
A: Yes – both the website and the Desktop Kiosk are fully Vista compatible.