Members still having login problems

[treszoks]

I've had the same problem for a long time and I'm running 2.2.9 now. I just tell people not to use the AOL built-in browser and to open up Internet Explorer.

[themonarch]

Not that I know of. None of the updates have helped. I'm running version 2.2.9 right now and still have about 10 - 15 users a day that have to clear their cookies manually.

[BettorsTalk.com]

Any updated progress on this problem?

[Paul]

Originally posted by atl
Seems like you're on to something there. I was having a lot of trouble working in the Admin Control Panel. It seemed as if my session would timeout almost instantly, and I would have to relog after making changes anywhere in the admin cp. IE6 has new cookie handling options, if you check Internet Options for IE6.

Here's what I did, and I haven't had any problems....yet:

- Go into Internet Options via Tools menu in your IE browser or Windows Control Panel (I use XP btw).

- Select the Privacy tab.

- Under the Settings area, select Advanced button.

- Check the box that says Automatic Cookie Handling.

- Select Accept for First and Third Party Cookie Handling (should be default)

- Check the button labelled Automatic Session Cookies

Now I am a complete n00b here, but this seems to work for me. Hope it works for you.

This is fine, unless you use AOL's browser. vBulletin's sessions.php is what's telling AOL that the session is invalid, cookies or not.

The only thing that will keep you logged in with AOL is to set to be logged in automatically with cookies.

Lalala...
Paul

[atl]

Originally posted by themonarch
What about recommending Netscape Navigator or Mozilla to users? Seems IE, esp 6, has cookie issues.

Seems like you're on to something there. I was having a lot of trouble working in the Admin Control Panel. It seemed as if my session would timeout almost instantly, and I would have to relog after making changes anywhere in the admin cp. IE6 has new cookie handling options, if you check Internet Options for IE6.

Here's what I did, and I haven't had any problems....yet:

- Go into Internet Options via Tools menu in your IE browser or Windows Control Panel (I use XP btw).

- Select the Privacy tab.

- Under the Settings area, select Advanced button.

- Check the box that says Automatic Cookie Handling.

- Select Accept for First and Third Party Cookie Handling (should be default)

- Check the button labelled Automatic Session Cookies

Now I am a complete n00b here, but this seems to work for me. Hope it works for you.

[Steve Machol]

Many people run phpPortal - seemingly without problems. However I also see many problems in the support system related to this hack. Note that if you do install any hacks, we will not be able to provide official support. If you run into further problems then we'll need to ask you to remove all hacks. With phpPortal, this includes all the changes made to the database as well.

[themonarch]

I know you guys are trying, just wanted to bring it back to the forefront, esp with 3.0 around the corner. It just makes me hesitant to recommend vbulletin to my other clients without knowing how to fix these problems. This client that's running vbulletin is hacked that I keep charging him to troubleshoot these problems and deleting and recreating users, etc... He's like "just fix the d**n problem or switch my boards. Oy! Stressful day!

Anyways, I'm looking to get rid of the top frame and run VBulletin as the main site, perhaps with phpPortal as the content management system. What are your thoughts about that?

Nancy

[Steve Machol]

I wish I could understand why some forums have these problems but the vast majority don't. For instance except for a couple of AOL members having problems with 2.2.6, I've never had any reports of these kind problems on either of my two forums.

Another thing to check is to make sure that the users are not using browser settings or any other software on their computers that blocks cookies. Unfortunately most people would not even realize they have something like this on their systems, which makes it a very difficult problem to troubleshoot.

[themonarch]

Originally posted by themonarch
Hi Steve,

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm polling them to find out. Generally it's from all over the map; aol users, earthlink users, edu users. Mostly using IE, however I have seen users try all my tips but still not be able to get it to work, ie stay logged in.

I also tried the sessions.php that's stickied but it didn't work either.

On the cookie path, I changed it when these login problems started happening and then I changed it back a day later, since by doing that I messed everyone up. It's currently:

Cookie Domain - blank
Path to saved cookies - /

You've asked me this before... here's the answer above....

[themonarch]

Re: Members still having login problems

Originally posted by themonarch
Hi all,

Lots of my users/members are having problems with logging in and/or staying logged in. Here's what I've had them try:

VBulletin Login Problems

Try this 1st: Clearing your cookies and re-logging in:

It's here: http://www.nissaninfiniticlub.net/cookie_help.htm

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

If that doesn't work, try this 2nd: Login and browse thru http://www.nissaninfiniticlub.NET instead of the .com address.

Check this too: Also, it's very important that your Internet Explorer setting(s) allow cookies. This site uses cookies to keep you logged in while surfing thru different forums.

Here's the Microsoft document detailing how to set your Internet Explorer to allow cookies.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/...acy/config.asp

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Go into your User Control Panel on the forums and select yes for "Automatically login when you return to the site? (uses cookies)" and "Browse board with cookies?".

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Occasionally cookies will get corrupted with IE 6.0. To fix this you'll need to manually delete them. To do this:

Tools -> Internet Options -> Temporary Internet Files -> Settings -> View Files

Then search for the individual cookies for nissaninfiniticlub.net and delete them all. The name should be in the form of:

Cookie:usernamenissaninfiniticlub.net
and
Cookie:[email protected]www.nissaninfiniticlub.net

...and any derivatives of the above.

Then highlight the individual cookies and delete each one found. After this, close all browser windows and restart IE.

Log back into the forums by scrolling down to the bottom of the main page of the forums and inputting your userid and password.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

There seems to be no solution that works for some of them. I've even went into the sessions table and deleted their id, but that still isn't working.

Any other help would be so appreciated. I must get 5 emails a day from people who can't login or stay logged in.

Thanks!

Yup. And here's all the other things I've had users do, to no avail. This is the 1st post in this thread... all my other info should be documented in this thread too.

[Steve Machol]

Definitely upgrade to 2.2.9 and see if that fixes the problem. I'm assuming that you've asked the affected members to manually delete their cookies.

By any chance did you make any changes to your 'Cookie Domain' and 'Path to save cookies' in the Admin CP?

[themonarch]

http://www.nissaninfiniticlub.net

version 2.2.7

Saw that people were having issues with 2.2.8, so I didn't move to that. I'm planning to go to version 2.2.9 tonight, if that'll help.

Thanks!

BTW: Current status of vbulletin: Server Load Averages 1.17, 1.29, 1.25 416 users online (98 members & 318 guests).

[Steve Machol]

Re: Ok, still having problems

Originally posted by themonarch
And the login problems continue for me:

What's the URL to your forums? And what version are you running?

[themonarch]

Ok, still having problems

And the login problems continue for me:

I've received 12 emails today from users having problems logging in or staying logged in (for example replying to a post)....

they are coming from all sorts of domains, not just aol... (actually only 1 aol user this time).

When will this problem ever get a viable solution? I upgrade and run a hack-free board and the problems still continue......

[mvigod]

Anything amazon or yahoo are running php is capable of doing the same thing at least from the browsers viewpoint in one way or another. PHP can handle cookies using functions or you can build your own and create your own headers if you have to. I doubt php is so flawed that it cannot handle cookies properly or that an issue as basic as tracking a user cannot be done flawlessly.