My Astro > Profiles

1. Why do I need to register with my e-mail address?
   
   The reasons why we use e-mail as an identifier for a user profile are twofold:
   a) E-mail addresses are unique. There are no identical ones for different people. And users don't have to memorise names under which they registered; everybody should remember their e-mail address though.
   b) If you forget your astro.com password, you can have it e-mailed. For this, the e-mail address should be real.
   With the deletion of your e-mail address you will delete your entire profile.
   
   
2. How can I merge my guest profile and my registered user profile?
   
   When you access the site as guest user, go to My Astro (top menu bar).
   Use the link Create a registered user profile. You need only to fill in the email address and password of your registered user profile, no other fields, and press the "continue" button at the bottom.
   Our system will recognise that you have already a registered profile under the given identity, and merge the data from the guest profile into it.
   
   
3. How can I delete my user profile?
   
   Log into your My Astro profile (top menu bar) and use the link Delete entire profile, including all data. You will be asked to confirm your request, because we want to avoid that someone can "accidentally" delete their profile.
   
   
4. How can I delete my e-mail from your mailing list?

   Astrodienst sends a maximum of four or five newsletters annually to registered users of astro.com. If you do not wish to receive these e-mails, you can delete your registered profile. You may still use the free astro.com services with an anonymous guest profile which is e-mail-free, but you should be aware of the following restrictions:

   • You can access your stored data only from one computer. It is not possible to log in from a different computer.
   • You can store no more than four sets of birth data.
   • You must accept "cookies" in your browser, if you want avoid having to re-enter your birth data every time you wish to access a horoscope.
   • If the cookies are deleted, you will lose your stored data.

   It is also possible to have permanent access to your stored data in the guest profile via bookmark. For this purpose, you can bookmark a displayed horoscope page, e.g. the Personal Daily Horoscope.

   If you would like to delete your registered profile now, please click here. This link leads you to the respective page. In order to delete your profile, you need to enter your password. If you have forgotten your password, you can have it sent by e-mail from that page.

Profiles > Login / Logout

1. I cannot log in with any of my e-mail addresses. Why?
   
   Most likely, you are not a "registered user" but have used our website as an anonymous "guest user". If you haven't registered with your e-mail address (i.e. you are a guest user), you are identified by a cookie which is stored on your computer. If you lose this cookie, you lose all your data.
   If you are a registered user, however, it is important that you remember which of your e-mail addresses you used for registration. Even more so, if you used a "fake" e-mail address, because in this case, our server can't even send you your password.
   
   
2. I have a registered profile. Sometimes I am asked to log in, and at other times the system recognises my profile without having to log in. Why?
   
   There are several possibilities:
   
   1) You have activated "High Security" in your profile. In this case, you have to log in after a certain period of inactivity or after exiting and re-starting your browser.
   
   2) If "High Security" is not activated, the following may be the case:
   Normally, your PC keeps a cookie and this identifies you automatically on each visit to www.astro.com.
   But if you - or some software on your end - deletes cookies or prevents them from being transmitted, our server cannot identify you. Then you need to login to your registered profile.
   On each login, a new cookie will be issued so that next time automatic recognition (from the same PC) works again.
   
   
3. How can I log out of my registered profile?
   
   There are two ways of logging out of your profile:
   
   1) In order to log out of your profile, please
   • Click on My Astro
   • Then click on the link "Leave this profile / Log in to a different profile".
   • You are now logged out.
   • To gain access to your data, you have to log in again.
   
   If you wish to protect your data from people who share your computer, please activate "High Security" in your registration settings. Then do one of these three things:
   - log out of your profile (see above)
   - exit your browser
   - switch off your computer.
   Each of these actions deletes the hidden 'session cookie', and the next time you access www.astro.com, you need to log in to your profile again.
   
   2) Click on the "Login/Logout" link in the blue bar at the very top of each page.
   Your name is still displayed next to the login link at the top of the page and on the login page. If you want your name to disappear completely, you have to click the "Login/Logout" link again.
   
   
4. I am in the wrong profile. How can I change to my own registered profile?
   
   Go to My Astro and click on the link Leave this profile / Log in to a different profile. Then you can log into the profile you wish by entering your e-mail and www.astro.com password.
   
   

Profiles > Change e-mail or password

1. How can I change my e-mail address?
   
   Log into your My Astro profile (top menu bar) and use the Link View/edit registered user data to change your e-mail address.
   You now find yourself on the page "My Astro > Registration Data". Just change the address you have entered in the top input field called E-mail. Then, enter your current password and click the "continue" button at the bottom of the page.
   NOTE: Please do not change your e-mail address and password in one transaction. If you want to change both, please do it in separate steps (see also "How can I change my password?").

   Please remember that you should NEVER use your password from your email account as password for www.astro.com. At www.astro.com, just use some extra password which you use only for this service and which you find easy to remember.
   
   

2. How can I change my password?
   
   Log into your My Astro profile (top menu bar) and use the link View/Edit registered user data to change your password.
   Now you can use the link Want to change your password? Click Here at the very bottom of the page "My Astro > Registration Data".
   Then enter your old password in the first line, your new password in the next line, and confirm your new password by re-entering it. Click "continue" to activate your new password.
   
   NOTE: Please do not change your e-mail address and password in one transaction. If you want to change both, please do it in separate steps (see also "How can I change my e-mail address?")
   
   
3. How can I delete my e-mail address?
   
   Log into your My Astro profile (top menu bar) and use the link Delete entire profile, including all data. You will be asked to confirm your request, because we want to avoid that someone can "accidentally" delete their profile.
   
   

My Astro > Stored Data

1. How can I delete Astro data from my list?
   
   When you're on the page My Astro Data of My Astro (top menu bar) you will see a list of the birth data you have entered. On the right, there is a column of small checkboxes, with nothing in them. If you want to delete a horoscope, click into the little square to mark it, and then click on the link that says "delete marked data" at the bottom of checkbox column. The horoscope data will be deleted. You can delete any number of horoscopes at once.
   
   
2. Is there a way to retrieve a set of data once it has been deleted from my list?
   
   No, unfortunately, there isn't. That's why you are asked to confirm the deletion by entering your password.
   
   
3. How can I store more than 4 sets of Astro data?
   
   This is easy. Create a "registered user profile" instead of a simple "guest profile". You can store up to 100 sets of birth data.
   This doesn't oblige you to anything, and all the free services are still free. Just go to My Astro (top menu bar) and click the link Create a registered user profile.
   
   
4. Is the same reference place used globally for all data in my profile?
   
   There are two possibilities:
   1. You have chosen a reference place:
      This reference place is used for all stored data. There is no option to choose a different reference place for every chart in your profile.
   2. You have not chosen a particular reference place:
      The reference place is the same as the birth place of each set of data. This means there are different reference places.
   
   
   
5. Is there a way to manually sort the stored birth data?
   
   No, there is no such feature. It would be too complex to implement.
   
   

Stored Data > Data Privacy

1. How can I protect my data from people who use the same computer?
   
   First of all, we recommend you to create a registered user profile and to activate "high security" in the section View / edit registered user data. Each time you start your browser, you will have to log in to your profile.
   IMPORTANT: When you have finished your session, you need to do one of three things:
   - go to My Astro and use the link Leave this profile ...
   - exit your browser
   - switch off your computer.
   Each of these actions deletes the hidden 'session cookie', and the next time you access www.astro.com, you need to log in to your profile again.
   
   
2. There are changes in my data list which I haven't entered. How is this possible?
   
   This can only happen if you have published your profile ID (for example, if you have sent a link to someone), or used somebody else's profile ID from a published link.
   It can also happen on a public computer, where a cookie was left in the browser for future sessions from the same computer.
   The remedy is: Register your profile (see My Astro in the top menu bar) and activate the "high security" feature when you register. Access to your data will be denied anyone who is not in possession of your password.
   
   
3. All the data saved in my profile seem to have disappeared!
   
   It is possible that the cookie which connects your computer to your My Astro profile has been deleted on your computer.
   If you are in a guest profile right now, please leave it and log into your registered profile.
   If you have only used a guest profile (not a registered user profile), the loss of your cookie means the loss of your data. With a registered profile, logging into your profile restores the cookie.
   
   

My Astro > Enable Cookies

About Cookies

Cookies are tiny text files stored by your browser that hold login and usage information about a particular web page or service you use. Cookies are normally enabled by default in most browsers. These instructions are provided in case you have turned cookies off and need to turn them on again. Cookies are harmless, don't let yourself be mislead by some alarmists.
For more information about Astrodienst's privacy guidelines, please read "About the information you give us".

The option for accepting cookies can be switched on or off in all browser types. In order to generate charts at astro.com, it is not necessary for your browser to accept cookies. In certain cases, however, it can be an advantage to do so, for example, you can stay logged in in your registered user profile for a long time, even if you are not using it. Whereas, without accepting cookies, you will be logged out automatically after 15 minutes.

Cookies can not generally be considered as a security risk, even if other people use the same computer. To be safe, it is enough for you log out of your registered astro.com profile before leaving the computer. To do this, please use the "Login/Logout" link at the top right of the page and then click on the link "Leave this profile/Switch to different profile".

How to enable Cookies in your Browser:

Internet Explorer 6+

1. Select Tools from the Browser Menu Bar (At the Top)
2. Choose Internet Options.
3. Click on Privacy.
4. Move the slider to "Medium".
5. Click OK.

Internet Explorer 5.x

1. Select Tools from the Browser Menu Bar (At the Top)
2. Choose Internet Options
3. On the bottom of the list, go to the Choose Security tab
4. Choose the Internet Content Zone
5. Choose Custom Level
6. Scroll down to Cookie in the list and choose either Enable or Prompt
7. Scroll down to Allow session cookies (not stored) and choose Enable or Prompt before accepting cookies
8. Press OK
9. Press Apply
10. Press OK

Netscape 4.7x

1. From the Edit menu, choose Preferences.
2. Click the Advanced category.
3. Click the radio button Accept all cookies.
4. Click OK.

Netscape 7.xx, Mozilla

1. From the Edit menu, choose Preferences. (In MacOS X, choose Preferences from the Netscape or Mozilla menu.)
2. Select the arrow next to Privacy and Security.
3. Click the Cookies category.
4. Click the radio button Enable all cookies.
5. Click OK. You will need to close and reopen your browser for this to take effect.

Opera 7.11

1. From the File menu, choose Preferences.
2. Click the Privacy category.
3. Check Enable Cookies.
4. From the Normal Cookies drop-down menu, select Automatically accept all cookies.
5. From the Third Part drop-down menu, select Automatically accept all cookies.
6. Click OK.

Safari

1. From the Safari Menu, choose Preferences.
2. Click the Security icon.
3. In the Accept Cookies: selection box, chose Always or Only from sites you navigate to.

Camino

1. Select Preferences from the Camino menu.
2. Click on the Privacy icon.
3. Click Enable cookies.
4. Close the Preferences by clicking in the window's close box.