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Different login behavior

C

carlsson

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 30, 2003
Messages
6,274
Location
Västerås, Sweden
Does anyone more than me notice that login behavior (cookie handling?) seems to be different depending on how you do it?

1. If I log in with the form at the bottom of the board, it accepts my login but doesn't seem to send the right cookies making my browser remember that I just logged in.
2. If I enter a login protected part (i.e. profile, writing message), I am forced to login. It works, but all "unread" markers are missing when I return to the forum index.
3. If I manually click on "login for personal messages", I get properly logged into my mailbox, and can later return to the forum index and see the unread messages.

All three behaviours in the very same browser (IE 6.0), computer (W2K) and time of day. I'm accepting all cookies, so it can't be a rejection issue. Maybe one or a few of those are malformed somehow?

I can try on some other phpBB boards I visit, and see if their setup is identical to Vintage Computer.
 
I'd be curious to see if the behavior is the same elsewhere.

I've got myself set up to log on every time so I never have to actually type a password (I'm often worried that I'll forget it!)

I'm still anxiously awaiting the next major release of PHPBB while simultaneously considering a switch to vBulletin.

The former is still in a "it'll be done when it's done" state and the latter will cost me $100 or so. . .

Not that any of that has anything to do with your question. . . :)

Erik
 
Hi Anders;

I am using version 6.0 at work, and I use this link (i have it bookmarked) to get to the vintage forum:

http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/index.php

everytime i pop on, i don't have to log in or anything. forum knows who i am.

i use Mozilla at home, and with the same bookmark, and also no problems.

mind you, for some bizarre reason, when I go to the mini game compo forum at work, it never remembers who i am, no matter what i do.

good luck

chris
 
Erik said:
I've got myself set up to log on every time so I never have to actually type a password (I'm often worried that I'll forget it!)
Click to expand...
Yes, I know I can save passwords etc but usually I prefer not to. Now, I've experienced something else interesting:

From home I tried to use the bottom form (and got the same behavior as explained above). I logged in again, logged out but I am still listed as logged in. I even cleared my cookies and without having logged in, I write this response (as the server thinks I am logged in, but my browser does not know that).

Being a web developer in a login-based site, I know about all the horrors in logging in, keeping track etc. We use a combination of (regular) cookies and server-based timing (session cookies would work too, to a certain extent), but it is not 100% foolproof.

Erik said:
I'm still anxiously awaiting the next major release of PHPBB while simultaneously considering a switch to vBulletin.
Click to expand...
No! Not vBulletin! Well, not unless you require a whole portal beyond the forum itself. I still find it amazingly poor not to have "log out" among the options in the user meny. I don't know if its other forum functions are any better or easier to use than phpBB.

Whenever I get timed out from this forum, I will try a new approach and post whether I find success or failure.
 
Err.. guest enabled. Hit me with something hard. Oh well, now I'm timed out again. Sorry for spamming.
 
(can I have a guest enabled test/junkyard area?)

It seems "Log in" enables the coloured "new posts" icons. So does "Log in for new messages" but not a forced login to view profile or write message. What I will do now is to post this test message, force a login to profile, and then go directly to my inbox without passing the index. It shouldn't work any better. Maybe the target one is redirected to after a forced login will clear unread markers. The other issue with bottom login not working at all is another issue.
 
Holy cows! A visit to my inbox before going to the index did preserve the unread markers, on the opposite to what I feared. Maybe I should download a copy of phpBB on my own and continue testing there (or at least try the other installation I visit and see if the same thing happens in that forum).

End spamming for now.
 
Re: Different login behavior

"carlsson" wrote:

> Does anyone more than me notice that login behavior
> (cookie handling?) seems to be different depending on
> how you do it?

I login automatically whenever I come to this site, which
means that I don't have to login in & worry about posting
as a guest.

It saves all the trouble of having to login in or how you
login. So where it states Login Automatically, I'd do that
if I were you (unfortunately I can't remember where it's
stated on the site).

Cheers,
CP/M User.
 
"Anonymous" wrote:
>> I've got myself set up to log on every time so I never
>> have to actually type a password (I'm often worried
>> that I'll forget it!)

> Yes, I know I can save passwords etc but usually I
> prefer not to.

Well I've been doing this for quite some time now &
since I used a different password than all my other
passwords, there's no threat of the other systems I
used getting hit (from Hackers).

I do get an awful amount of spamming though, but
they were doing this before I saved my password,
so I feel this isn't the culprit.

Cheers,
CP/M User.
 
carlsson said:
A visit to my inbox before going to the index did preserve the unread markers
Click to expand...
Hmm.. I'm still not totally sure what to expect from unread markers. Probably I should use the "view posts since last visit" rather than relying on coloured icons. On the other phpBB site I checked (Remix64), the bottom form login worked as expected, but they run an older version, phpBB 2.0.3.
 
Despite the latest update of the forum, the behavior is still exactly the same as mentioned in my first message from January. Furthermore, it works (or unworks, whichever you prefer) the same way both from work (W2K/IE6) and home (W98/IE6).

However, on the Denial, AtariAge and some other phpBB forums I visit, the expected "bottom of page" login works as it should. It is only on this site the cookies and read markers get lost if I don't take the detour around my message box. No big deal as I know the proper way to read the forum, but somewhat annoying.

Can it have to do with from which URL I access the forum? I normally come from http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/ although I notice that once inside, the www part is stripped away from URL generated by the forum. As I wrote before, I have a rather liberal cookie setting on all my computers, so it should not boil down to cookies rejected in the case my login doesn't register.
 
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