# login problem



## Al Stevens (Apr 4, 2004)

The "Remember me" function in login is broken. This happened when I was on the road and had to ask for a new password because I didn't have my existing one with me. I logged in with the new password on my laptop and with "Remember Me" checked. The next time I opened the site, it did not remember me and I had to log in again.

When I returned home of course I had to log in with the new password. It does not remember me here on my desktop either whereas before it worked fine. Prior to this problem all I had to do was open http://forum.saxontheweb.net, and I was logged in and good to go. Now I must type in my userid and password every time.

Could this get fixed, please? Before telling me that it works okay on your computer, please change your password first to see if it really does. If that works, try the "forgotten password" feature to get the site to assign and email you a new password. That's where my trouble began.


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## BobbyC (May 17, 2007)

My computer/browser never works with the remember me but I'm sure it's due to having all my cookies flushed after exiting.

Perhaps clearing your old SOTW cookies may help.


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## Carl H. (Feb 2, 2003)

I think the remember button installs a cookie. If you are deleting them when logging offline that could be the problem.


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## bandmommy (Jul 4, 2007)

Every time I log off it says that all cookies have been cleared. 
If you want to be remembered, don't log out.


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## Al Stevens (Apr 4, 2004)

I am neither deleting cookies nor logging off of sotw. I do, however, close the browser window. Nothing has changed since "remember me" worked other than my password. Something about changing the password is broken. 

Those who wish to suggest solutions and who do not have the problem themselves are asked to try changing their passwords first to see if the problem exists for them. 

This is not local to my computer. It happens on two XP computers logging in from two different phyical locations from two different ISPs. Two different states, actually.

Where in Internet tools is the cookie deletion option changed. I want to ensure that it hasn't gotten itself changed without my knowing about it. It could be a silent side effect of Automatic Updates.

Please, staff, give this problem some attention. Given the number of times I visit this site each day, this problem is a major pita.


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## fballatore (Dec 15, 2004)

Al -

I logged out, reset my password using the "forgot password" link, and then logged back in clicking the "remember me" box. Got into SOTW, closed my browser, and went back in. No problems with my browser remembering my password. Sounds to me like a cookie or browser problem. Remembering the password has nothing to do with SOTW itself; it's your browser/PC that stores the password info.

Try to clear your browser cache completely. In IE7, go into options to clear your cache. After clearing the cache, close all browser windows, and then go back in. The general settings regarding storing cookies etc, are in the Privacy tab of your internet options. As a test, you might want to set your settings to temporarily accept all cookies. You can tweak the settings on that screen. Using the Sites button, you can specifically name sites for which cookies will always or never be accepted, regardless of your general settings.


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## Al Stevens (Apr 4, 2004)

fballatore said:


> Remembering the password has nothing to do with SOTW itself; it's your browser/PC that stores the password info.


Well, sotw has to tell the browser what to do.

I deleted all the cookies, retried it, and the problem went away. Apparently there's something in the cookie saving logic, perhaps in sotw's php code, that gets password cookies confused. I haven't fixed the problem on the laptop yet. I'll look into it some. If I see anything noteworthy, I'll report back.

Thanks, Frank.


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## BobbyC (May 17, 2007)

My guess would be that your browser was trying to use the information from the original cookie to log you in and that information was your outdated password.

Changing your password and re-entering the log in info was not updating the cookie.

Once you removed the cookie with your login information, a new one was created with your latest password information.

That's my guess and what I was implying in my previous post.


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## Al Stevens (Apr 4, 2004)

I don't think so. The original screen always came up with no username and no password loaded. But if that's what happened, the "Remember me" script is not adequately sensing and eliminating conflicting login cookie data. 

I wonder why it happened to my account on two different setups that are in no way connected. I think it might be a lurking bug that will get more people if they log off and/or try to change their passwords.


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## Mick Stuppguy (Jan 23, 2008)

My computer doesn't remember me.

My wife doesn't remember me.​
My dog runs about 50% . . . .​
Sigh . . .


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## LampLight (Jun 22, 2007)

I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.14, and I have the same problem. Firefox allows the user to specify cookie retention on a site-by-site basis. You can either specify "Allow", which retains cookies on exit, or "Allow for Session" which flushes them. For over a year now, Firefox has been told to "Allow" cookies from forum.saxontheweb.net, and it has automatically logged me in. 

About a week ago, this functionality stopped working for my SOTW cookie, with no changes in my browser settings. However, the functionality still works for other sites, e.g., amazon.com :?


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## madgrocer (Feb 6, 2003)

Face it Al.... SOTW just doesn't want to remember you ..


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## cjpts (Jan 20, 2008)

I'm pretty certain that cookies have a limited life before they expire. If you still have the old cookie, your browser will normally save a new one as something like [email protected](1).net whilst the browser will still look for [email protected]

It's been a while since I covered them so I might be wrong, but that'd explain why deleting all the cookies solves the problem.

If this is the case, then you can't blame SOTW, it's a browser problem, where the browser is unable to distinguish the latest/correct cookie.


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## LampLight (Jun 22, 2007)

I don't think it is a browser problem. I deleted the cookies in both Firefox and IE7, and the problem - which had never appeared in either browser - persists in both browsers. 

The plot thickens. :?


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## Al Stevens (Apr 4, 2004)

You might also have to delete the cache. Don't ask me why, but I did, and the problem went away.


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## al9672 (Jan 6, 2008)

No problems here with firefox 3(on windows and mac) or internet explorer 8 or safari(on windows and mac)


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## LampLight (Jun 22, 2007)

Al Stevens said:


> You might also have to delete the cache. Don't ask me why, but I did, and the problem went away.


Thanks Al, but I must admit it was user error on my part. :shock: After deleting the cookie, I forgot to check the "Remember me" box. Deleting the cookie and checking "Remember me" was sufficient for me (in FireFox).


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## LampLight (Jun 22, 2007)

UPDATE: Maybe it was not entirely user error after all. My browser just forgot me again.

Oh well.


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## Al Stevens (Apr 4, 2004)

LampLight said:


> UPDATE: Maybe it was not entirely user error after all. My browser just forgot me again.
> 
> Oh well.


And you use Firefox, whereas I use IE. Further indication that the problem might be in the website's PHP code rather than in the browser.


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## Chris S (Jun 3, 2004)

I don't have root access to the php code for the forum (yet). Nor am I a 'competent' php prgrammer (I'm mostly a Ruby on Rails guy), but when I get a chance to discuss this with Harri, I'll take a look. In the meantime, what Frank suggested earlier in the thread seems to be working. 

Please report any further problems that you have here.

Best,
Chris S


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## Harri Rautiainen (Jan 24, 2003)

Up front I have to say that I did not have time to study the problem report thoroughly.

Regardless of that, many problems reported as SOTW problems are after closer study to do with member's browser settings.


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## Al Stevens (Apr 4, 2004)

Harri Rautiainen said:


> Up front I have to say that I did not have time to study the problem report thoroughly.
> 
> Regardless of that, many problems reported as SOTW problems are after closer study to do with member's browser settings.


The symptoms of this one as reported in this thread indicate otherwise. Two of my computers exhibit the problem concurrently from different locations whereas before they did not. No browser settings changed, but a lot has changed at the sotw end. What would you conclude?

I don't think I can reproduce it for you. Frank's workaround fixed it. But others are reporting more persistent occurrences of the symptom. Good luck tracing it down.


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## cjpts (Jan 20, 2008)

Al Stevens said:


> The symptoms of this one as reported in this thread indicate otherwise. Two of my computers exhibit the problem concurrently from different locations whereas before they did not. No browser settings changed, but a lot has changed at the sotw end. What would you conclude?
> 
> I don't think I can reproduce it for you. Frank's workaround fixed it. But others are reporting more persistent occurrences of the symptom. Good luck tracing it down.


A lot of the changes to SOTW are a result of standard vBulletin upgrades. If it were a problem with the code, a lot of people worldwide would have been experiencing it and no doubt another update issued.

I'm not ruling it out, but I do think that expired cookies are the root of the problem, resulting from a browser not handling replacement cookies correctly. (as I stated earlier, most browsers will save an additional cookie rather than overwriting or deleting expired cookies)


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## Al Stevens (Apr 4, 2004)

cjpts said:


> A lot of the changes to SOTW are a result of standard vBulletin upgrades. If it were a problem with the code, a lot of people worldwide would have been experiencing it and no doubt another update issued.
> 
> I'm not ruling it out, but I do think that expired cookies are the root of the problem, resulting from a browser not handling replacement cookies correctly. (as I stated earlier, most browsers will save an additional cookie rather than overwriting or deleting expired cookies)


When you make a suggestion like that, you encourage folks to take the path of least resistance and not try to solve the puzzle.  Sorry, that's the old software developer in me coming out. I always looked for those paths of least resistance.

I intuitively rejected your speculation the first time (based only on intuition) after learning that the problem seems to rear its head with two different browsers. Mozilla Firefox was developed indepently of IE. It is remotely possible but highly unlikely that they would have the same bug. Assuming it is the same bug and not a coincidence.

But one thing is for sure. Computers try to trick us. It could be anything. It will turn out to be one of those forehead slappers.


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## cjpts (Jan 20, 2008)

I think the actual problem is identifiable from your 2nd post in this thread - 2 Windows XP machines :twisted: (its a theory, and a very possible one!)

Sure IE, Firefox, Opera et al were developed independently, but they are all dependant on the same operations defined by the operating system and its components. Any browser running under Windows will be dependent on the Microsoft file system handlers and could very well share other DLLs which determine certain operations. If these portions of Microsoft code stop browsers being able to over-write cookies, that'd explain the problems that you're experiencing.


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## Al Stevens (Apr 4, 2004)

I gotta say, that's a bit of a stretch.


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## cjpts (Jan 20, 2008)

Lol, but that is the common feature  so far no one with a mac has complained !

Or maybe madgrocer's right, maybe SOTW just doesn't want to remember you? :twisted:
If you don't think it is a problem in the Windows code, when was the last time you ran AntiVirus or AntiSpyware scans?


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## Al Stevens (Apr 4, 2004)

Earlier today, actually. Everything gets scanned on the way in and out, and I run a full system scan every week.


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## cjpts (Jan 20, 2008)

Well we're in the sensible minority there.... well I can't actually say I scan all of mine that regularly but then I've not been home much to use the other computers!

I think I'll make that my mission this week before finally moving to Silverstone


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## LampLight (Jun 22, 2007)

It has to be remembered that Al and I had XP long before the problem arose, so the real question (IMO) is "What changed that would affect both browsers and a number of different users?" In fairness to *cjpts*, many of us windows users get automatic updates, and it is possible that one of them has negative side effects. :shock:

If that is the case, then _all_ adopters of the update should be affected. One possibility is SP3, which I have installed. We have had reports at work that SP3 has affected some programs. Any other SP3 adopters out there, and do you have login problems?

Well, as my daddy used to say at times like these:

_*Get a Mac !!!*_​


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## cjpts (Jan 20, 2008)

LampLight, nothing would have to have changed on your computer, apart from the cookie becoming a year old (or whatever timestamp was given for the cookie to expire on).

If I get chance before I move out I'll try the remember function under a few different versions of Windows (should be able to go back to the original release of XP too if I get time).


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## warp x (Aug 12, 2007)

cjpts said:


> Lol, but that is the common feature  so far no one with a mac has complained !


We never do


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