Sporadic auto log out

Pilgrim · Post by **Pilgrim** » 25 Jan 2010, 11:10

For some reason I'm being automatically logged out after browsing around the board for a little while. I can't manually get this to repeat so I can't find a common thread (no pun intended) to track down the cause. Additionally, this board's cookie isn't being retained. No, I do not have anything that automatically blocks or deletes cookies, nor is there a program (cleaner) that deletes this board's cookies. Yes, I have checked the box for auto login. It would seem there is a connection between these two anomalies since both involve the board's cookie, eh?

Post by **StuartR** » 25 Jan 2010, 11:14

This is most odd, and I am pretty sure that you have been singled out for special treatment as we have not had any other similar reports.

What web browser are you using?
What browser add-ons are installed?
Are you connecting from behind a corporate router of some kind, or just a standard home network?

Post by **Leif** » 25 Jan 2010, 11:27

You could try using the 'Delete all board cookies' link at the bottom of the Board Index page - exact location will/may depend on the skin you are using.

Pilgrim · Post by **Pilgrim** » 25 Jan 2010, 11:31

StuartR wrote:This is most odd, and I am pretty sure that you have been singled out for special treatment as we have not had any other similar reports.

What web browser are you using?

What browser add-ons are installed?

Are you connecting from behind a corporate router of some kind, or just a standard home network?

a. Browser: IE 8 (Vista)
b. Browser add-ons: none to speak of out of the ordinary, e.g., Adobe pdf and shockwave flash, find as you type, Internet Download Manager and ieSpell.
c. Router: Just a home network via a Linksys router (hardwired)

I am registered on 30+ boards and none exhibit this behavior. So, perhaps this board has been singled out for special recognition?

MikeS · Post by **MikeS** » 25 Jan 2010, 15:17

This happened to me once last night, but after signing in a second time it never happened again...so far, anyway. A stale cookie maybe?

Pilgrim · Post by **Pilgrim** » 25 Jan 2010, 15:25

Leif wrote:You could try using the 'Delete all board cookies' link at the bottom of the Board Index page - exact location will/may depend on the skin you are using.

Good idea! Funny I didn't consider this already since on my own board I give this bit of advice to members having problems of this kind often.

I was able to reproduce the issue consistently by clicking on the "User Control Panel" link. Doing so logged me out. However, after deleting the board cookies, this hasn't happened... yet. So, perhaps things will function properly now.

Thanks for the advice.

ChrisGreaves · Post by **ChrisGreaves** » 25 Jan 2010, 18:47

Pilgrim wrote: Additionally, this board's cookie isn't being retained.

Me too. I'm going to try the advice on "Cookies" given above. (Firefox 3.5.1)
(After a reboot) So far so good!
(A day later)Nope. I'm being logged out for some reason ... At least I'm only logged out, and not yet locked out!

ChrisGreaves · Post by **ChrisGreaves** » 28 Jan 2010, 02:11

StuartR wrote:[*]What web browser are you using?
[*]What browser add-ons are installed?
[*]Are you connecting from behind a corporate router of some kind, or just a standard home network?[/list]

Firefox 3.5.1; no addins; standard home office WinXP network/
I documented a few tests on a web page http://www.chrisgreaves.com/Eileen/Loggedout.htm
I'm sure I've missed something out, some nifty diagnostic step that would isolate the problem.
I documented it this way so I can go back and rerun tests and update the documentation.

I'm now open for suggestions.
I may live to regret this, but my reformat of drive C: with reinstallation of Win XP is long overdue ...

Pilgrim · Post by **Pilgrim** » 28 Jan 2010, 03:12

ChrisGreaves wrote:
Pilgrim wrote: Additionally, this board's cookie isn't being retained.
Me too. I'm going to try the advice on "Cookies" given above. (Firefox 3.5.1)
(After a reboot) So far so good!
(A day later)Nope. I'm being logged out for some reason ... At least I'm only logged out, and not yet locked out!

Yesterday I was logged out over "8" times trying to reply to a post and/or include an attachment in a reply. I tried deleting the board cookies 4 times, tried 3 different skins, rebooted and tried again and finally on the 9th attempt, I was able to post the reply without being logged out.

I've run no diagnostics but I am quite sure the problem isn't with my system.

Post by **StuartR** » 28 Jan 2010, 06:36

Pilgrim wrote:...Yesterday I was logged out over "8" times trying to reply to a post and/or include an attachment in a reply...

Is it possible that your IP address is changing? This would cause the server to reject your current login.

ChrisGreaves · Post by **ChrisGreaves** » 28 Jan 2010, 11:07

StuartR wrote:
Pilgrim wrote:

Stuart, I know your response was to Pilgrim, but I'm interested too.
My first access to Eileen's Lounge this morning and waddyaknow I'm logged out. Same appearance as last night. When i click "Login" the system (everything beyond the tips of my fingers) has remembered my user/pwd, but not the checkbox, which remains OFF.

Can you please tell me how I would determine if my ISP address is changing?
Also, is there some easy way for me to peek in my cookies to see just what is set/unset at some stage?

I have no problem emailing to you a set of cookies, if that would help. (If I knew what to send).
P.S. I'd even give up the Cooking Forum to get this fixed ..

Pilgrim · Post by **Pilgrim** » 28 Jan 2010, 13:39

StuartR wrote:
Pilgrim wrote:...Yesterday I was logged out over "8" times trying to reply to a post and/or include an attachment in a reply...
Is it possible that your IP address is changing? This would cause the server to reject your current login.

Not likely since I am behind a router and on satellite and thus my IP is virtually static. Again, I frequent 30+ boards, one of which is my own which I have administered for 14+ years (began with the original Perl wwwthreads) and this is the only board where this problem occurs. It may be related to "referrers" being checked; enabled/disabled in the preferences of this board's software.

Whatever the cause, it is definitely aggravating.

Post by **HansV** » 28 Jan 2010, 13:51

I have changed some of the settings. Could you let us know whether the problem persists? Thanks in advance.

ChrisGreaves · Post by **ChrisGreaves** » 29 Jan 2010, 14:41

HansV wrote:I have changed some of the settings.

(Just call me little Mr. Echo)
I had persistent logouts all day yesterday, but after this morning's reboot I am logged back in as I always hope to be.
V. Strange.
For the record, here are the (Firefox) cookies currently registered under Eileen's lounge.

Argus · Post by **Argus** » 30 Jan 2010, 00:43

Sorry to add a, perhaps, slightly different issue to this thread, but since some have already added their... and I don't know if it is related or not.

What I mentioned in another post, here, happened again. This is not a huge problem for me; I'm so used to log on to different sites, don't bother with different software to auto log on or saving cookies for much longer than the session etc. That is, no need for me to purge old cookies, for most sites, they are removed when I close the browser. However, it would be nice if it worked until I logged out and/or closed the browser (for me the same since they are per session).

Anyhow, earlier today, I was logged in, tabs open, inactive in the Lounge for some 4 hours, when I came back I decided to test this; one press on F5 and I'm logged out (I could of course tried to open some Control panel or other non public link, but a refresh on the index page was enough to see this).

I've checked: no new IP address during that time; nothing else changed (as far as I know). As I said I don't, at the moment, check "Log me on automatically...", but that shouldn't matter since I had not left the site, should it?

Fx 3.6; JavaScript allowed for the Lounge, and when I checked after being logged out I had the four cookies Chris mentioned.

ChrisGreaves · Post by **ChrisGreaves** » 30 Jan 2010, 09:39

Argus wrote:... I don't know if it is related or not...

More grist to the mill, I reckon:
I have NINE EileenLounge pages on my Firefox menu; my habit is top "open all in tabs".
I noticed this morning, after my regular start-of-day-reboot, that only some pages were logged out. (I am developing a nervous tic that sees me open-all-in-tabs, login on the leftmost page, then F5-refresh on the remaining 8).

Some of the pages were logged in, some were not, if we can go by the status of the login/out command up near the top RHS of each page.

VBA, Excel and WindowsXP (My own Green Dots) were all showing "logout", which I take to mean, were logged in.
Lounge Matters, Word, Hardware, Scuttelbut, Cooking and Mozilla Firefox were all showing "login", which I take to mean, were logged out.

I have 4 cookies; are the cookies keeping track of individual pages?

Post by **HansV** » 30 Jan 2010, 10:37

I'm afraid I have no idea what causes this - perhaps the cookies can't keep track of so many open tabs...

Bigaldoc · Post by **Bigaldoc** » 30 Jan 2010, 13:07

I don't know if there's a max or not, but I have five links in my "Eileen's" toolbar bookmark. If I open all in tabs, they all show me as logged in.

ChrisGreaves · Post by **ChrisGreaves** » 30 Jan 2010, 19:21

HansV wrote:- perhaps the cookies can't keep track of so many open tabs...

Before seeing this response I deleted about one hundred cookie-sets from within Firefox. I am now down to 20.
Let's see how this goes.

Bigaldoc · Post by **Bigaldoc** » 31 Jan 2010, 19:55

ChrisGreaves wrote:
HansV wrote:- perhaps the cookies can't keep track of so many open tabs...
Before seeing this response I deleted about one hundred cookie-sets from within Firefox. I am now down to 20.
Let's see how this goes.

If you'd like to try a little experiment, I have a suggestion for ya. In my earlier post, I showed a graphic of my FIVE bookmarks for this forum and said that I didn't have the hit-miss problem you're experiencing.

Well, I don't know if this is the answer or not, BUT in the interest of "neatness" yesterday, I rearranged those bookmarks to open the tabs, left to right, in the order that I normally prefer to see them. I put the one for the INDEX page a couple further down in the list and, BINGO, your problem was repeated this morning when I tried to open them all in tabs! Some were logged out and some not.

This afternoon, I put them back in the original order and I think a key is that the INDEX PAGE bookmark be first in the list. I don't pretend to know why, but it must have something to do with the order in which the cookies are dealt with. I tried about three restarts of Fx and all was well, so I dunno. It would be worth a test to add a bookmark to the INDEX page and put it at the top of the list to see if that helps.

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