Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Technical Help and How To's Log-in Problems

WooHoo. I stay logged in if I leave the "keep me logged in" box
unchecked!
r/
Artemis
1. Actually it is the "Remember me on the each visit" box.
2. But when I close down, I do get logged out.

Okay, on my Windows Phone it required a complete delete of my browser history, but the save/fill-in-password feature of the browser is working again. I still get logged out after some time, though, but at least I don't have to type in the username/password any longer.

What Artemis found: Yeah, the cookies are now probably just set for the browser session instead of permanently but this might be a small price to pay if the login works reliably in this context.

Annette: I've noticed that the cookies contain the path and that's got to be a feature that can be disabled since zoomway's board isn't sending the path and uses the same version of the software. If an upgrade could permanently fix these issues, I'd be all for it but since it works on (sorry to beat the dead horse) zoomway's with the same version and started with the server reboot two days ago, I'm not so sure this would actually solve our current problems...

Michael

Michael, here are the settings for the boards. I'd like for you to tell me what I should change the settings to because in the research I've done on the support forum tells me that these are correct. I do not run Zoomway's board and at this point I don't know who does so I can't tell you what their settings are set to. What I do know is that, again, it's a known issue with this version of UBB. For all I know they had support come in a fix it, which is what I am trying to for all, what? Six of you having this issue? At least, that is who is complaining. I DO have one user that cannot log in at all now since I made the change to prefix the cookies with "lc"

The reboot of the server was done to fix the STMP issue that was affecting the entire host, which mean sites like the nfanfic and kerthawards, which is going through nominations right now, were also stuck.

Until I hear back from support, I don't know what else to do. But please, enlighten me to what you think I should do.

So right now I am stuck between a rock and a hard place here.

I'll let you know what support says when I hear back from them.

I'm not sure what happened, but I couldn't log in earlier. I closed my browser, and came back an hour later and can now log in. I never check the "remember me" box (or whatever its exact wording is).

I'm not complaining, just wanted to let someone know this happened. I always figure that the more information one has, the better when trying to solve a problem like this. Maybe it's intermittent?

Thank you for working on this problem that seems very challenging... and frustrating for you I'm sure!

Cuidadora, I think the reason why you were able to log in after a while is the your cookies for the boards expired (possibly, I'm just guessing here).

I just reverted the changes I made due to a few complaints of people not being able to log in at all.

I'd rather people need to log in when they open their browser then have people locked out of the boards completely.

Annette,

Thanks. That makes sense. My browser is set to clear cookies when I close it.

Annette, I know it's frustrating and I really know just how frustrating cookies can be after I had a lot of fun with users losing their login because a proxy in between switched the casing of the path's value and the browser stopped sending the cookies and then needing to come up with the correct fix for this.

Anyhow, the longer path values are back for me in Firefox so as far as I'm concerned, I don't think disabling the SEO/spider-friendly URLs did us much good in the long run. Plus, it broke the TOCs, so may just going back to the original setting Hmm...I don't remember, did you disable them while trying to troubleshoot this or was that an effect of the server reboot, too?

I can see that the admin settings look right/sensible/what they should be set to. But since there's still a path value being sent, I'm thinking this might be cause there's another place in the software or on the server where the cookie path is set. Maybe there's a proxy or are there customizations of the pages done? The reason I was curious about the server reboot was that it appeared to trigger the problems and there could be changes that have been made since the previous reboot and they only now became active. Do you know when the last reboot was or if there was a change that never had an effect and just slipped through the cracks till this week?

While googling this I managed to find this post here: http://community.mybb.com/thread-134372.html and http://community.mybb.com/thread-126359.html I know that it's mybb and not ubb but maybe since they're both "bb"-boards and use php, there might be similarities in regards to the config-options? They definitely mention that the settings can be done in code and in the database via the UI and if not done correctly, a server restart resets them etc.

The 6 users: I know, that just a couple of us. But it seems like it's also at least half of the users who posted since the trouble started. I really don't envy you and am just trying to offer all the ideas I can think of to remotely troubleshoot this. Sadly, I don't have any experience with the UBB stuff or, well, any recent php experience, so I can't go beyond generic ideas. That's also why I mentioned zoomway's. Most defaults on web servers etc are to send empty path values because paths in cookies are just trouble. And since zoomway's isn't sending a path either and uses the same software, it seemed to me that we're not doing the default but rather something has been configured somewhere to cause this behavior. And since it's not in the very obvious admin gui, it's got to be somewhere else, be it the php-files, Apache itself or a reverse proxy server, etc. And that means needle in a haystack Did I mention that I do get why you're frustrated?

Michael

Hello Annette,

Please make that seven users. I haven't been posting on the MB at all in a while since I've been ill all month and have been trying to conserve energy. (I haven't even been reading much lately.) I especially hadn't posted here since I didn't think a "me too" post would add anything of value. But your "only six people claim to be affected" comment makes me think a +1 might be worthwhile.

I, too, have been experiencing the login/logout problems that others have described so well.

My thanks to you and to Michael for your troubleshooting and for trying to resolve this problem.

Joy,
Lynn

I am still waiting on a response from UBB support. At this point this is in their hands.

I, too, have been getting logged out every time I turn off my internet and come back. And logged out going to a fresh page (but only if I click that button asking me to stay logged in -- ironic, I know). Like Lynn, I too didn't chime in because logging in to the website each day isn't that big a deal (since my user name and password are saved between uses) and others had already described the problem.

The bigger deal to me is the fact that none of the TOC links work. As a reader (especially one trying to locate stories to nominate for the Kerth awards), I'm finding it frustrating to locate those eligible stories that aren't on the Archives yet or to recommend stories to others. As a writer, I use links to refer readers to my other stories, to correct errors, and to link story parts to one another, none of which I can do at the moment without doing a search on myself. Since I have a story with hundred of parts, slogging through the search results wastes my valuable and limited writing/computer time. I agree with Michael, what was so bad with the last format? Can we please go back, so our links work again?

I appreciate all the hard work everyone is doing to fix these problems, especially since you're working in a foreign language (UBB). Good luck with finding a solution that works for everyone.

I am glad I finally found this topic. I usually stick to the fanfic topics and didn't know what was going on. I was unable to log in and didn't know why. Now I know I have to uncheck the Remember me box. It's a pain having to repeatedly log in, but at least I can log in. So, thank you.

Ann

*Whew*, I thought my phone was glitching or something!

The good news is that leaving "remember me" unchecked seems to help with logging in. Alas, it doesn't solve the fanfic index kicking me out.

Queenie, fanfic index kicking you out, you mean sending you back to the main page of the boards? That's getting discussed over here:
http://www.lcficmbs.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=269137#Post269137 (and already trying to figure it out with Annette)

Michael

Okay, with the changes made last night, the login should work at least when you do not check the "remember me" checkbox. This means, you should stay logged in while you keep your browser open (your session is kept alive).

Caveat: when you suspend your mobile devices, the browser might discard the session data after a while and you find yourself logged out when you turn it back on. At least, that's what happens on my Windows Phone with Mobile Internet Explorer. I do not know how it behaves on Androids and iPhones or iPads.

So, it would be great to hear from you guys here in this thread if it a) works for you now and b) how it works for you on your phone/tablet.

Meanwhile, I'll be scouring the net to hunt down when and why the "remember me" feature might break the login. I'm not alone in that it doesn't work, right?

Michael

Disclaimer and note-to-self: For me, the "remember me" checkbox still works on my Desktop Internet Explorer and the boards send me a whole slew of cookies I don't get in Chrome and Firefox.

You are correct, Michael. I wasn't able to log on for several days, either on desktop or mobile. Now I can log on if remember me is not checked. I appreciate the work everone is doing to help find solutions

Great to hear, Susan!

Just a head's up, everyone: We'll be trying one more thing to try and get the remember-me to work, too. It shouldn't affect anyone when we do, but, well... as I said, just a head's up

Michael

Okay, the login, including the "remember me" feature should now also work as well as it did before the trouble started.

'as well as' means that it looks like the 'remember me' feature never worked on desktop Internet Explorer, causing you to get logged out again on the next action. As far as I could establish, this *only* affects desktop Internet Explorer. Chrome, Firefox and mobile IE should be okay.

If you guys have any more troubles with the login, please let us know here. And yes, I know, should the login ever again completely fail, posting about it would be difficult, so e-mails would be needed

Thank you all for your patience!

Michael

I just played around awhile while on my iPhone using Safari. I logged in, checked to 'remember me', then clicked all around the TOC's, backed to the homepage by clicking the 'Lois & Clark' top left icon various different times (which had been an issue for me), X'ed out of the boards and went on some other websites for a bit, got back onto the boards, then X'ed out of the boards again, went elsewhere for a bit, got back into the boards...

Very happy/thrilled/excited to report I had no issues! ! I stayed logged on from the beginning, and even after everywhere I went.

Awesome!!!

Thanks, guys!
Laura

I'd like to thank Michael for all his help on this issue. This was all him. I would just like to give credit where it's due.

Thanks again, Michael!

Log in seems a lot more stable. I'm on IE (yes, I know, I've heard the IE jokes) so I still can't keep the box checked, but at least I'm not getting logged out every time I refresh/click on a new page!

Thanks for all your hard work, everyone!