Can't log in - FIX FOUND, CLEAR ALL COOKIES FROM FORUM+RETRY

General forum information, announcements, news, questions and suggestions.
Locked
Reve
Emeritus Contributor
Emeritus Contributor
Posts: 105
Joined: Fri Mar 23, 2007 9:34 am
Location: United Kingdom

Can't log in - FIX FOUND, CLEAR ALL COOKIES FROM FORUM+RETRY

Post by Reve »

I've got Firefox 3 beta 2 installed, and when I try and log in to the forum I get the page saying that I've logged in correctly, and in the corner I get a logout link, but when I go to any other page after this I'm logged out again.

This means I can't post at all - I'm having to..... shudder.... use Internet Explorer to post :cry:

I've disabled the only addon that would likely conflict with stuff on the page, Firebug, but it still doesn't work. Any ideas, or can anyone else replicate this with Firefox 3 beta 2?
Last edited by Reve on Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
rick752
Honorary Member
Honorary Member
Posts: 4508
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:02 am
Location: New York, USA

Post by rick752 »

A couple of users who haven't been here in a while are having this problem (not just Firefox 3). I seems that you need to dump all the "lanik.us" cookies. I would also dump any "richsterling.com" cookies too.

Then log back in. We just moved to a new server this month. Let me know.
"Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it"
User avatar
Hubird
Adversity Author
Adversity Author
Posts: 1768
Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2007 4:31 am
Location: Australia

Post by Hubird »

I was having the EXACT same problem but with firefox 2.0.0.11 WinXP so it's not a BETA issue.
User avatar
rick752
Honorary Member
Honorary Member
Posts: 4508
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:02 am
Location: New York, USA

Post by rick752 »

Did dumping the cookies solve it, Hubird?
"Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it"
MonztA
EasyList Author
EasyList Author
Posts: 8121
Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:19 pm
Location: Germany

Post by MonztA »

I had a login problem today too. Just deleted the cookies and it works again.
Reve
Emeritus Contributor
Emeritus Contributor
Posts: 105
Joined: Fri Mar 23, 2007 9:34 am
Location: United Kingdom

Post by Reve »

Ahh yes, it works fine now, thanks.

The link to delete all cookies on the site doesn't work, you have to go into the Firefox options.
User avatar
Hubird
Adversity Author
Adversity Author
Posts: 1768
Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2007 4:31 am
Location: Australia

Post by Hubird »

Did dumping the cookies solve it, Hubird?
I think so but I I couldn't say for sure.

I tried the following steps:

The link to delete all board cookies (didn't seen to do much)
I also tried logging in and out a few times (don't think this really helped either)
I then cleared ALL private data in firefox

it's probably safe to say it was the cookies but I have not had any problems before today and I visit pretty much everyday. The new server has been in use for longer than that (I think) so I don't know what changed to suddenly cause problems.

Everything is working fine at the moment.
User avatar
rick752
Honorary Member
Honorary Member
Posts: 4508
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:02 am
Location: New York, USA

Post by rick752 »

It does seem like the 'delete board cookies' is ineffective. It may still be pointing to old cookies (this board WAS migrated from richsterling.com) ... or that link doesn't work with Firefox. I actually had problems staying logged in today for the first time. I deleted the "forums.lanik.us" & also the "richsterling.com" cookies in Firefox and it seems to have stabilized now..

I also found and corrected something else in the Admin Panel. Lanik can correct me if I am wrong for doing this ... but I remember he was changing some settings in the old forum because we thought that the slow forum problems that we were having had to do with the forum not releasing accumulated user sessions on the server. It seems he may have changed the "session timeout" to 1,000 seconds, which would cause an automatic logout after only about 16 minutes (this may have also played a little "havok" with the cookies too if the logged-in time was exceeded). The value is now set to "0" (infinite session). What do you think, Lanik?

Theoretically, user sessions shouldn't expire now and that part of the cookie would be constant.
"Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it"
User avatar
LanikSJ
Site Owner
Site Owner
Posts: 1806
Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2007 7:44 am
Location: /dev/null

Post by LanikSJ »

I'm not sure what purpose "delete all board cookies" serves if any. Locally stored cookies will be checked when you login to this site. If the cookie doesn't match the login is rejected, until you force the issue by deleting your local cookies for this site and allowing the site to set new cookies.

The time outs we experienced with the old server with poor setup on Powwebs part. Their SQL install doesn't release connections once they are dropped and once you reach a certain amount (usually in the thousands) the forum would take forever to load. Basically every connection would have to be checked by the SQL database which could take awhile. Once we moved to a new host the problem seized due to the fact SQL is working much better with a new hosts and does pretty good garbage collection and connection monitoring.

This might have something to do with my monkeying around with cookie settings last night, if so my apologies to everyone. Deleting locally stored cookies should solve any remaining issues.
"If it ain't broke don't fix it."
User avatar
rick752
Honorary Member
Honorary Member
Posts: 4508
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:02 am
Location: New York, USA

Post by rick752 »

Lanik wrote: The time outs we experienced with the old server with poor setup on Powwebs part. Their SQL install doesn't release connections once they are dropped and once you reach a certain amount (usually in the thousands) the forum would take forever to load.
We may have been sharing our SQL connection limits there with other sql users too ... possibly another forum or two (that was brought up on another forum that was having the same problem with Powweb). We may have only had a handful of connections ... while another site may have had a thousand.
"Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it"
User avatar
LanikSJ
Site Owner
Site Owner
Posts: 1806
Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2007 7:44 am
Location: /dev/null

Post by LanikSJ »

There was even a big long post on Powwebs own forums by their support staff on how their MySQL performance wasn't up to par and there has been no solution: http://forums.powweb.com/showthread.php?t=77086 That pretty much got me running for the hills, things like that I don't accept to kindly especially when I work in the same industry.
"If it ain't broke don't fix it."
User avatar
rick752
Honorary Member
Honorary Member
Posts: 4508
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:02 am
Location: New York, USA

Post by rick752 »

I was reading other posts there about everyone's MySQL problems ... that place is a mess!
They simply just don't know how to identify or fix anything there ... sad :(
"Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it"
Locked