Aol Problems

[kennyhibs]

I know that there are a few threads but does anyone have a soloution for AOL VERSION 8

It's not affecting all my users only a handful, they login but anytime they try and post the get the you are not logged in message.

They have tried not using the default AOL browser but still get the same results


using vb 3.0.0 b7
kenny

[Zachery]

make sure you havent mofied the session ID from your templats, and ask them to clear their cookie cache and also tell them no to use AOL anymore

[Steve Machol]

IMO they will continue to have problems with the AOL browser. Ask them to use a real browser instead.

[kennyhibs]

Aol

IMO they will continue to have problems with the AOL browser. Ask them to use a real browser instead.

REPLY FROM AOL

Thanks for writing to America Online and for making us aware of your concern. I am Mervin and I will be working with you regarding your email.

I understand from your recent email that you are having problems logging on to your Favorite Website on AOL.

Please accept my personal apology. Please allow me to explain that there is no problem on your AOL software. The problem that you are encountering is within the website that you are accessing.

To resolve this, please contact webmaster of this website ([email protected]).

Please let us know immediately if you have further inquiries or comments. We will always be ready and happy to assist you. Thank you very much for your time and continued support.

Mervin V.
Customer Care Consultant
The Techmail Department
America Online Inc.

COMMENTS PLEASE

[Wayne Luke]

Actually the problem is with the AOL servers combined with their software and it only affects dial-up customers using their software. When you request a webpage, your computer's IP address is sent to the server and that is used partially in identification. Most computers send a single IP address, which they receive when they connect to the Internet, for a single connection session. AOL does it differently.

AOL's software uses a caching proxy server that changes your IP address with every page access even in a single session. Because of this, the user's vBulletin session is invalidated and they are forced to log in again.

There are three ways around this...
1) Use an external browser to access vBulletin based sites. While these use AOL's connection to the Internet they bypass the internal caching proxy and therefore operate like a regular ISP. All OSes come with at least one browser pre-installed so additional software will not be needed on the end-user's part. AOL actually requires Internet Explorer to be installed for its software to work.

2) Make sure the check box to be automatically logged in is checked when they log in. This will write their userid and a password hash to the cookie so they will log in invisibly on every page.

3) Upgrade to AOL's Broadband service.

You will have the same problems using AOL's software on any site that uses session based authentication which includes sites like Amazon, Yahoo and eBay.