Fixing Cookie Persistance Issues on vBulletin Forums

[jim mcnamara]

In my environment I have to logon every time I connect. It also takes me 10-20 minutes to compose sensible answers most times.

I'm active in two other technical forums as well. However, I post far less often here simply because I lose the connection/cookie/login status any time it takes me more than 10 minutes to get my act together in post. Since there often is no time to reconstruct things, especially *** it requires re-finding/re-pasting references. The other two sites have never exhibited this problem. Ever. They are vBulletin sites as well.

I would like to hope it relates to some setting on my PCs. And not PF.

Other than clicking the 'remember me' checkbox, what can I do? I cannot always be sure to 'log out' when some local problem strikes and I have to work on that. Remembering to go back on logout out hours later may never happen on that particular PC. That won't do.

 

[Kurdt]

Unfortunately I believe thatpeople are logged out automatically after 20 minutes of inactivity.

 

[George Jones]

Somewhat awkward solutions:

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=1221236#post1221236.

 

[tiny-tim]

click "Preview"?

Hi jim!

Have you tried clicking "Preview" every few minutes …

maybe that will convince the server you're still there!

 

[Evo]

Oh no Jim. I know it's a hassle, but one work around is to use the notepad or other similar feature to form your response, then paste it into a post.

Perhaps the connection time out is something Greg could extend? I think that logging inactive members out frees up the server, but maybe extending it a bit is a possibility.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

If you have the remember me box checked you should be logged out. I've left my account sit all day inactive and I never get logged out.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

If you have the remember me box checked you should be logged out. I've left my account sit all day inactive and I never get logged out.

I assume you meant to say "logged in" in the first sentence. Yes, I never get logged out automatically if the remember me box is checked.

 

[negitron]

Yes, I never get logged out automatically if the remember me box is checked.

Well, you do, actually. The server does log you out after the expiry period (10 minutes? I believe that's the vB default), however, having the Remember Me box checked serves you a cookie file; this cookie will then log you in again automatically when you reload the page so from your point of view, the process is transparent.

If you're getting logged out and you have Remember Me checked, you likely have a cookie issue with any number of causes. Knowing which browser you use is helpful in diagnosing the problem.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Well, you do, actually. The server does log you out after the expiry period (10 minutes? I believe that's the vB default), however, having the Remember Me box checked serves you a cookie file; this cookie will then log you in again automatically when you reload the page so from your point of view, the process is transparent.

I should have said that I never have to manually log in.

 

[Moonbear]

If you have the remember me box checked you should be logged out. I've left my account sit all day inactive and I never get logged out.

I think Jim was trying to say he can't (or shouldn't) use the "remember me" box because that requires remembering to log out manually. It sounds like he is on shared computers and it wouldn't be secure for him to remain logged in on a computer if he forgets.

 

[Integral]

I access PF through 2 different computers, until recently I could not remain logged in on one (Vista) and never had to log in on the other (XP). When I finally gave in and let bill install IE8 all of my issues with Vista went away. I now remain logged on with no problems.

 

[octelcogopod]

I meant to make a thread about this too..

Everytime I go to this site I have to log in.
Sometimes I log in on the main forum page, and then when I click on philosophy, I'm logged out again and have to log in again.

I don't 'idle' with the page open either, once I'm done reading/posting I leave the site.
Some other sites I'm always logged in no matter what, for months, and on others, like this one, I'm logged out often..

Is there something that can be done about this?
It's not a big problem but I notice even if I save my password in firefox, the user/pass fields are not filled out, so I have to retype them.

 

[negitron]

I had a similar issue with Firefox which turned out to be related to either a bad user profile, bad extension or a corruption in the browser core executables. I don't know and I didn't have the patience to try to find out which; I uninstalled and reinstalled Firefox and that fixed it.

 

[dx]

I always copy (ctrl + C) my response before clicking on 'post' if I think there's a chance that I've been logged out while composing it.

 

[jim mcnamara]

I do a copy of a post as well. I will try going to IE8 and see if it gets better.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I may have found the problem. I am using XP. After installing IE8, I was getting logged off whenever I closed the page.

Go to tools, internet options, browsing history delete, and check the box at the top that says "Preserve favorite website data", select whatever else you want, and hit delete. If the box is checked, I stay logged on. If the box is unchecked, I get logged out every time I close the forum page [without running the internet options tool]. I am set to delete my browsing history each time I close the page, so maybe that plays a role, but it has never been an issue before.

Also, if the box is checked, I wasn't logged off even after clearing my cookies, which always worked in the past. So now I have to go uncheck that if I want to clear all. That part is rather obvious, but it was not obvious going the other direction.