Forum login failures
John Sandgrounder (1650) 574 posts |
This is interesting. I mostly us Firefox 52.9.0 (32 bit) on Windows XP Service Pack 3.
I agree. Deleting cookies with Firefox running lets me login every time. |
Rick Murray (539) 13406 posts |
Whoo hoo! S’not just me using steampunk tech. ;-) |
Stuart Swales (1481) 351 posts |
Fireworkz for Windows development is still mostly done on Windows XP. In a VM ;-) |
Alan Adams (2486) 1125 posts |
I discovered this using Firefox. I switched to Chrome, which I don’t think has been used on the forum before, and hit the same problem. Going back to Firefox and deleting cookies allowed me in. |
Steve Pampling (1551) 7932 posts |
Various methods of provoking the non-login situation:
Note: Theory says that since these cookies are valid for the “session only” then closing the browser and restarting it should clear the cookies, but a working setup will stay working and a broken one will stay broken. This work setup needed a cookie delete to get in to post this. Edit: I should say this is an extreme case where I have no clue what IP the N3-Internet gateway is presenting me as from one time to the next and my session is running through a proxy with AV and a firewall with AV/Malware inspection before it even gets to the N3 private net and what Capita do to it on the way out to the Internet is another mystery. |
André Timmermans (100) 620 posts |
A little detail I noticed is that the de-logging occurs as soon as I go to the Forum and Downloads pages, clicking on the other pages from the main menu like Documents, Bugs or Bounties do not trigger the problem. |
Andrew Hodgkinson (6) 465 posts |
If we can confirm that it might help narrow down the issue. Also, anyone have a browser that shows time of day a cookie was established, or expiry time? Wondering if a browser is seeing some expiry on the cookie when none should be set. Doesn’t show anything in Safari OS X Console/inspector. |
Steve Fryatt (216) 2046 posts |
Unfortunately, the problem pages here are Forum, Bugs and Photos. The others seem not to affect the login status, whereas clicking on these three links in the menu bar will immediately switch the “Account” link back to “Log In” again. |
Steve Pampling (1551) 7932 posts |
Firefox with the Cookie Manager add-on says the cookies are all session cookies that expire at the end of the session (so shutting down the browser should expire them) and this one says: _radiantapp_session_id beastapp_session_id hubapp_shared_id Well, that’s what the add-ons say but shutting down the browser and restarting doesn’t leave you with an expired cookie in my experience. Similarly, I’ve shut the browser down and then shut down the machine, then rebooted and fired up Firefox the following day (and more) and discovered I forgot to log off, so I could post immediately because the session was still active. Perhaps the server isn’t checking session id’s and date/times as well as it should. Note: I believe the current Mozilla add-on is rather similar to the Chrome equivalents, so I’d imagine Chrome has similar facilities. |
Jeffrey Lee (213) 6046 posts |
A little detail I noticed is that the de-logging occurs as soon as I go to the Forum and Downloads pages, clicking on the other pages from the main menu like Documents, Bugs or Bounties do not trigger the problem. I haven’t checked the behaviour of all parts of the site, but yes, some parts are safe to look at without triggering the log out. Logging in sets the _hub_session cookie, and Firefox’s network trace suggests that it is sending the new value through on all future requests. It’s just the forums and a couple of other bits of the site that are going “LOL nope” and treating it as invalid. |
John Sandgrounder (1650) 574 posts |
I used to have a Firefox bookmark which took me straight to the forum. If I logged from there then I saw the fault and had to delete the cookies before logging in again. I have now changed my Firefox bookmark to take me to the ROOL home page. I can now login from there and stay logged in, even if I visit the forum before logging in. |
Chris Mahoney (1684) 2100 posts |
I also go straight to the forum. I’ll update my bookmark now and see whether it helps. |
Steve Fryatt (216) 2046 posts |
But at the same time, those bits of the site also do something that then makes the current login invalid for the rest of the site. |
Chris Hall (132) 3504 posts |
I have now changed my Firefox bookmark to take me to the ROOL home page. I can now login from there and stay logged in, even if I visit the forum before logging in. That doesn’t work for me. I have to use Internet Explorer to post this. |
John Sandgrounder (1650) 574 posts |
Still working for me using Firefox 52.9.0 (32 bit) on Windows XP. I can choose whether my internet requests go out via my Zen FTTC connnection or out via an EE mobile phone Router. Both work. I have also checked it using Firefox Quantum on Windows 7. Also OK. I can even have both logged in together. This post was done created with XP and ediited with Win 7. |
Clive Semmens (2335) 3130 posts |
Yeah, normally I seem to be able to be logged in on Firefox and Safari on the Mac Mini, and on Safari on my wife’s Macbook, all three at once, no problem. Haven’t had the locked out problem recently either. Seems very random, but locks me out on both browsers at once on the Mini (Mojave), then usually lets me back in if I clear cookies on Firefox, but sometimes only after waiting a while and clearing them again. Not sure the exact behaviour with Safari on the Mini – don’t normally use that. Safari on the Macbook (High Sierra) hasn’t failed yet, but again, I don’t use that a lot. |
David Pitt (3386) 1248 posts |
A login from the ROOL Welcome Home page works here but only if the forum has not been previously seen, a browser restart will ensure a clean start. I think this may be browser independent. Checked on the Mac with Safari and Firefox and on Windows 10 with Edge. YMMV!! |
Clive Semmens (2335) 3130 posts |
One obvious browser dependency is whether restarting the browser clears cookies! Firefox doesn’t on my Mac Mini (it may be configurable, but I don’t want it to anyway); I don’t think Safari does either, but I’ve not checked. Restarting Firefox failed to clear the problem for me until I cleared cookies. The problem has so far simply never occurred on our Macbook, in Safari on High Sierra, but I understand it has for other folks with that combination. |
Rick Murray (539) 13406 posts |
Hmm, I have IE8 and for some reason it simply refuses to connect to anything. Weird. I poked around the settings but it didn’t seem to want to work. Pffft. |
John Sandgrounder (1650) 574 posts |
Previous to seeing the home/welcome page and not previous to trying to login. i.e. you can go home …. forum … login. The cookie is valid for any page from the top level (riscosopen.org) down, so it seems reasonable to me that if the home page is seen first, then the cookie should then work for everything below that. |
John Sandgrounder (1650) 574 posts |
I am happy to use XP, but I draw the line at IE. |
Rick Murray (539) 13406 posts |
Moi même. Moichido. Yo también. Unfortunately, there are still things that seem to depend upon it that no longer work properly since IE decided to throw a wobbly and treat everything as some sort of security zone issue, and thus, basically, fail to do its task. Mind you, this is IE we’re talking about. Failing to work is pretty much part of the description. It’s just decided to turn that up to eleven. |
Dave Higton (1515) 3404 posts |
On the credit side, the difficulties seem to have kept the volume of spam down :-) |
Chris Hall (132) 3504 posts |
I have now changed my Firefox bookmark to take me to the ROOL home page. I can now login from there and stay logged in, even if I visit the forum before logging in. Turning the computer off and on again, then going to the ‘welcome’ page, not the forum page, logging on using the pink button, then going to the forum page – and I am still logged on. Firefox has either been fixed or the site fixed or Firefox forgets its cookies when the power is switched off. |
Clive Semmens (2335) 3130 posts |
Or it’s a bit random somehow as well. Normally, whatever I do short of logging myself off, I stay logged on until the 05:30 site spring cleaning. Then sometimes visiting the Forum (or downloads, bugs, bounties or documents) logs me off and the only way back on is deleting the relevant cookies – which always lets me log on again, but going to the Forum (etc) may or may not log me off again. Leave it a while and clear cookies again, and by then it’s normally okay. I don’t know whether Firefox can be configured to clear cookies on power down, but it doesn’t do it by default – most, probably all, my cookies survive power cycling. |