Members having login issues I can't seam to nail down

[ehmax]

Hi there fine folks at vBulletin. I'm new to the community and just transferred my site from ubb.classic to vBulletin. My site is ehMac.ca: Canada's Mac Community. I'm really loving vBulletin! I've got a few teething problems and hope that you can help me out! (When I become a vBulletin ninja, I'll be sure to help return the favour to other newbies) I'll try to keep the issues separate and specific as possible. I'm a real newbie and not familiar with PHP, CSS etc... so please be gentle.

Ok... issue #1. I have had quite a few complaints from users about logging in problems. Today, a couple of long time members have said they are bailing on the site unless I get this fixed. I'll copy and paste below their emails as they explain it best - sorry for the length of this post):

The following message was sent to you via the ehMac.ca Contact Us form by xxxxxxxx.

--------------------------------

Sorry guys, but I've had it with this damned login bull**** going on with this new serverware -- or, at least the problems you're having with it. I just did a big fat post THAT I LOST because my login TIMED OUT! This has happened before and, along with me having to login every time I come here (even though I NEVER log out) and that when I do log in it doesn't take unless I go to the root of the forums and click BACK INTO the forum I was at (so, links in email notifications are USELESS as a result), this is just not fun anymore. It's a fisaco.

[snip] I KNOW it shouldn't be like this, because they use the same forum software at The Computer Mechanics and everything runs like a top over there. It's FLAWLESS.

I hate to sound like a prick, but let me know when it's all ironed out. "till then, I'm sorry but I'm gone.

Here's another:

Okay..I give up.That's IT!

Over the past few weeks I have written all sorts of
longish replies to several important threads on the
"new ehmac"...after sucessfully logging in, mind
you...just to be told that I "must log in to perform
this function". Then the whole damn thing is lost. The
whole carefully written and edited reply just vanishes
when I try to post it.

This often happens AFTER I have already successfully
replied to several other threads. The post reply
function seems to "time out" like a cheap dial-up
connection or something. Reminds me a lot of
Microcrash junk software. Bug city. And totally
frustrating.

As it stands right now...it's a complete waste of my
[ etc... snip]

Bye.

xxxx.

I know this is a cookie issue, but what the issue is, I'm not totally sure. Here's what I have attempted to do or other relevant information:

1. After transfer, I thought some people might have old cookie information etc.. so anyone who was having troubles, I got them to delete all cookies, quit and restart browser, and refresh etc... Some people still seemed to have problems.

2. I have 2 domains pointing to the board: ehmac.com and ehmac.ca. For people having problems, I told them to repeat step one, and make sure to go to ehmac.ca as I have isolated a problem when people go to ehmac.com. (Perhaps this is the problem and I need a way to address it)

3. In my vB control panel, I have cookie paths to / and cookie domain set to .ehmac.ca

4. I do have two other programs I'm using that do use cookies to identify people and share the same mysql database info for logins. Its PhotoPost Classifieds and PhotoPost PHP. The two users quoted above said they don't ever visit those sections, but just in case... Someone set this up for me who is a lot more in the know than me, and has set the options if PhotoPost PHP to cookie path as / , the forum cookie preface to bb, and the PostoPost cookie domain has been left blank. For PhotoPost Classifieds, has set cookie name as craftsterYaBBxxxxx (x out last few digits, as I'm not sure if this is a serial number or something).

I go back and forth between these sections and don't seem to have a problem with each section recognizing who I am.

Ummm... can't think of anything else relevant to say. Sorry for the length.

Any suggestions? Thanks for your help.

[Steve Machol]

Leave your cookie domain blank. There is no reason to change the default settings.

Also there have been some reported cookie related problems with PhotoPost integrated forums. Unfortunately we can't help much with these issues. Unless you are willing to reupload the original vB files, I suggest asking for help on the PhotoPost forums.

[ehmax]

Thanks for the reply. If I delete the current setting will it cause problems for users with their existing cookies?

My friend who had a vBulletin board setup my board for me and must of added the .ehmac.ca

If its ok to make that field blank, and that does the trick, great. If not, I'll go to the PhotoPost folks for support on that or just disable those programs first to try and rule it out.

Thanks again for your help. Really appreciate it.

[Zachery]

I suggest setting the cookie domain back to blank AND changing the cookie prefix in the config.php from somtjhing like BB to mac

This will force everyone out but should ensure that everyone gets new cookie

[ehmax]

Thanks again. Regarding having ehmac.com and ehmac.ca point to same forum, is that ok. Is there anyway I can have ehmac.com just point to ehmac.ca if that will help? Or maybe it shouldn't make a difference?

[ehmax]

Was just going over the settings in control panel again. (I should of setup the software myself, as I'm not quite sure what is default or what has been edited). I just realized under vBulletin Options -> Cookies and HTTP Headers Options -> Time Out for cookies. It is set to 900. Would this have something to do with it or is that just for the unread post settings and whether they show up in the Who's Online listings?

[Zachery]

That is the default setting 900 seconds is about 15 min, if some of your users are not excepting cookies it could be casuing the problems.

[conqsoft]

Leave your cookie domain blank. There is no reason to change the default settings.

Also there have been some reported cookie related problems with PhotoPost integrated forums. Unfortunately we can't help much with these issues. Unless you are willing to reupload the original vB files, I suggest asking for help on the PhotoPost forums.

PhotoPost doesn't require any changes to vB files.

[Zachery]

For intergration it does.

[conqsoft]

For intergration it does.

Nope.

EDIT: Well, unless you mean integration in the way of showing images on your Forum Home Page, then yes it may require changes. But to have PhotoPost working with, and using the styles/themes of your forum, no changes to vBulletin files are required.

[Steve Machol]

There are plenty of threads on these forums indicating special requirements that PhotoPost has for cookies. These requirements have been known to cause conflicts with vB cookies.

[conqsoft]

Sorry, never saw any special requirements before. It just needs to know your cookie prefix so it can read to see if you're logged into vBulletin or not. *shrug*

[ehmax]

That is the default setting 900 seconds is about 15 min, if some of your users are not excepting cookies it could be casuing the problems.

All the users having problems are accepting cookies.

Still not sure exactly what the 900 seconds is for. Is it just for the unread posts tracking and/or the who's online feature, or is it possible that people are taking longer than 900 seconds to compose a message and then their cookie times out? We have lots of members who write long, articulated posts and might be taking over 15 minutes to compose a message. Just got this message from member:

Been talking to some of the others and this bug is
something that several of them have noticed. Bopeep
mentoned log in probs to me as well. Is there some
sort of time limit on replying to a thread? That's
what it seems like to me. When I'm rather brief, then
no probs. Too bad I'm rarely brief.

Still don't have a sense on how I should attack this problem. Anyone else at vBulletin have a suggestion? Should I send in a direct support request?

[Zachery]

The 900 seconds is for reading forums, and the session.

when their session expires they would be "logged out" But if they were to post it should still go though.