Difficulties Logging Into Cookie-Based Things

[Trafton]

This has been happening to me on both J2O and the JCF, but J2O moreso. Whenever I log in, the session quickly expires yet Who's Online still shows me as logged in. On J2O, I cannot login at all; the session simply expires suddenly. I cannot even click on private messages. Yet it still displays me as logged in. I have tried deleting all of my temporary files, emptying cookies, etcetera. I am running WinXP with IE6.

EDIT: Moved to Technical Help, because it is probably a technical issue as it seems to affect a few other forums I visit.

~ Traft

[Cpp]

Sounds like a cookie read/access problem. Have you tried lowering your internet security settings?
Tools => Internet Options => Security/Privacy

[Trafton]

Thanks for the reply.

It is currently at medium. I have had no problems previously at this level and would rather not lower it. I previously got an OCX error when removing either cookies or files (do not remember which) reading "Error unregistering the OCX C:\WINDOWS\MCBin\Shared\MGBrwFld.dll". I have tried lowering the security settings...no difference.

~ Traft

[Cpp]

Do you have a firewall? I remember when I had ZoneAlarm I was unable to stay logged in on JCF nor on J2O. If you have firewall try temporarily turning it off and see if anything happens. If not then is JCF/J2O the only website where you are unable to stay logged in?

[Trafton]

Firewalls are not the problem in this case; I am aware of the ZA bug. While I use J2O more than most other sites, I have had problems with a PHPBB-based board, too.

~ Traft

[Cpp]

PHPBB? Hmm... J2O uses PHP, JCF uses PHP, PHPBB uses PHP... I wonder if PHP has something to do with it. Are PHP websites the only sites where you are unable to stay logged in?

[Trafton]

So far that I have seen, yes, but I am not one hundred percent sure. Most of the login-based sites I visit use PHP.

~ Traft

[Cpp]

It appears PHP is having trouble accessing cookies on your computer tho it might be a internet security problem as well. I don't have much PHP knowledge so I can't help here. I'm just beginning to learn it though I doubt PHP is the source of the problem. It is more likely a misconfiguration on your PC. I'm out of ideas.

[Trafton]

Thank you for the suggestions. I have tried nearly every possible combonation of everything, and I guess that it could be a problem caused by a recent system restore or something. The JCF seems to have stopped doing it, but I still cannot login on J2O. Thanks for your help anyway.

Suggestions are still quite welcomed.

~ Traft

[Bobby aka Dizzy]

I suggest that you try clicking the Delete Cookies button in Tools->Options or equivalent button in other browsers.

[Link]

I suggest using a network sniffer to see the HTTP headers during connections. Specifically, pay attention to the Set-Cookie header from the server and the Cookie header from the client. See if and when they are being sent, and if they match.

(J2O uses gzip compression, but that only affects the content part, not the header part)

[Trafton]

I suggest using a network sniffer to see the HTTP headers during connections. Specifically, pay attention to the Set-Cookie header from the server and the Cookie header from the client. See if and when they are being sent, and if they match.

(J2O uses gzip compression, but that only affects the content part, not the header part)
...You may be going a bit over my head with that... ;-P

~ Traft

[Link]

...You may be going a bit over my head with that... ;-P

Well it's the only diagnostic thing I can recommend right now. Get Ethereal (http://www.ethereal.com) and use the capture filter "tcp port 80".

Right-click on one of the packets (after capturing) and choose "Follow TCP stream". This shows all the traffic to and from the J2O server in text format. The cookie lines start with "Cookie:" and "Set-Cookie:". HTTP headers are very human-readable.