Sudden problem with user logins, but only with Firefox

[Gary Fischman]

OK, this is really strange.

Out of the clear blue sky today, I got a handful of users telling me they can't log in to my forum. I normally only get one every few days, but when I get 5 at once, I take it seriously.

One of the users gave me his ID and Password, so I tried it using IE, and it was fine.

So I logged myself out of Firefox, and tried getting back in, and I was not able to. I switched to IE, and it was fine. I cleared the cache and cookies in Firefox, but same results - couldn't log in. IE still works.

Now here's an even weirder rub: In Firefox, if I log in directly to admincp, I *can* log in, which also logs me in to the forum. But if I try logging in to the forum itself, I can not. And again - this is only in Firefox. IE is fine. (Haven't tried other browsers yet.)

Any suggestions?

[sung]

Having a very similar problem as well. I was able to duplicate the issue with a test account on my forums with Firefox 3.5.5 under OS X 10.6.2, even resetting the password would cause the login to fail. Finally after starting Firefox in Safe Mode I was able to login. However it isn't limited to Firefox, both IE8 and Chrome users have reported the issue as well.

This started within the last few days.

[Trevor Hannant]

Are you using customised styles or the default style? Can you recreate this on the default style?

If this has only started in the last couple of days, have any changes been made to the sites or the servers which may have had a knock on effect?

[Zachery]

As Trevster suggested, adding a new Default Style to the site: AdminCP > Styles & Templates > Style Manager > [Add New Style]

Make sure it doesn't have a parrent style.

sung, start your own thread please.

[Gary Fischman]

I can not reproduce this on demand, so making changes at this point is not something I can test. I can now log in and out without problems. However, today the problem has gotten much worse, I hadn't heard from any users since last Wednesday (the 11th), then suddenly today I've been slammed with complaints - probably 30 or so. This is a widespread issue, but again, it isn't everyone.

There have been no recent changes *prior* to the 11th, but at around midnight on the 12th, Red Hat pushed down an httpd security update. This issue began on the 11th, however.

This is bad, and I need help. But I don't know how to reproduce the problem, so changing skins isn't going to tell me anything. Users can't authenticate using the correct password. How else can we troubleshoot?

As Trevster suggested, adding a new Default Style to the site: AdminCP > Styles & Templates > Style Manager > [Add New Style]

Make sure it doesn't have a parrent style.

sung, start your own thread please.

[fatal1980]

I have just had this happen to me out of the blue today. New users can register just fine but after registering if they try to login, it tells them the password is incorrect. Same thing if i register a new user myself.. if i go to the user editor and update the password there, they can then login.. This is effecting two of my sites today... any ideas? I will try adding the default template.

[gregcube]

Are you by chance using Kontera? I was in the same boat as you experiencing weird login problems, then I found this thread: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...ning-all-users

That solved it.

[YZFRydn]

I have had this same problem with FireFox in the past. I disabled all of my add-ons with FF and cleared cache and that didn't work so I ended up doing a new install of FF. That seemed to do the trick. I had four users report the same problem to me so I asked them to try IE and they didn't have a problem with it. I reset the cookie file path thinking that might be an issue but that didn't help. They finally uninstalled and reinstalled FF and lo and behold, it worked.

I have been having serious issues with FF 3.5.x on certain sites. I think their upgrade had some very serious issues.

[Gary Fischman]

Are you by chance using Kontera? I was in the same boat as you experiencing weird login problems, then I found this thread: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...ning-all-users

That solved it.

Yes, I *am* running Kontera. I'm going to disable it right now and see if that's the problem. It isn't unique to Firefox, btw.

[stonepilot]

Removing Kontera fixed it for me. I have been receiving dozens of emails over the past 48 hours regarding this problem.

[Gary Fischman]

Yep - that did the trick. Kontera is the culprit.

But what really annoys me is the "you must have changed something" attitude by the vBulletin staff. Yes, it wasn't vB code that caused the problem. However, the problem is widespread, and clearly there is some parasitic interaction between a very commonly used advertising affiliate and vBulletin. If I owned vBulletin, I would want to know exactly what caused the problem so I could help my *paying* customers. Instead, vB simply chalks it up to external factors and washes their hands of it.

Thanks to gregcube for the link.

[Zachery]

Gary,

We've had the same stance for years. If you didn't change anything on your end, and the vBulletin files haven't changed, it has to be an external factor.