Logging in to forum

I looked into this a while back and found two separate mechanisms. One uses cookies stored on the user's computer and these are vulnerable to browser settings, browser updates, ad blockers, and anti-virus software etc. In other words getting logged off mysteriously is a feature of your computer's set-up or confusion due to you using more than one computer.

Second, the forum is hosted by Microsoft IIS/8.5. IIS has a server-side login remembering mechanism that can override cookies, typically to free-up server resources when they run short. Very like dad running round after teenagers switching off the lights because the yoof don't worry about paying the bill! If too many users are logged on the system will follow an algorithm to decide who gets dumped, usually it is people who have been inactive for the longest time.

The Model Engineering forum isn't the only website hosted on this instance of IIS. MyTimeMedia publishes many magazines and several of them have forums suspiciously like this one:

Quite likely they all share the same IIS. Therefore it's possible Model Engineer logins get dropped because the other forums are busy and need more space.

Can I recommend NOT staying logged in? Better discipline is to logout as soon as you've finished no matter what. Leaving a terminal logged on is sloppy lazy security and it develops into a bad habit: it increases the risk you will wander off with your Bank Account left open for your wife to find how much that Cowells really cost...

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 23/02/2019 18:01:02

4th time today.

4th time today.

Sometimes I just want to read posts without necessarily wanting to comment. Annoyingly though if you're not logged in you will see posts by members on your ignore list. Once logged in of course those posts disappear.

5th time!

I'll log you out again if you keep posting these messages

Check something isn't clearing your cookies.

Neil

Tried ticking remember me box, which doesn't always appear, lasted for a while then I am logged out,but I can live with it

Mick 🇬🇧

What is a cookies? I know nothing about any special settings. It is the only forum which kicks me off several times a day - sometimes. Sometimes it stays logged in all day and multiple days on occasion. At one time it stayed logged in for days on end regularly, but there was a sudden, unsolicited, change.

It has stayed logged in from early this am, although I have been back to bed since!

Perhaps I should try using my wife’s old windows laptop? My old tablet is switched off.

My wife’s old lap top was off - battery was flat. I’m now going to log off from my tablet and use her old laptop to see if there is a difference. Hopefully only need to report back in a fewcdays time.

A cookie is a file stored on your computer. They are used by Browsers and Web servers to store information within a session or across several sessions. Information like: are you already logged in, have you visited this website page before, and the content of a partly filled out a form. Loads more reasons - used for any situation where a web browser / web site needs to remember something. Although they can be 'persistent' cookies usually come with a time limit, after which they are deleted. Can cause "interesting" effects if your computer's clock is wrong.

Normally cookies aren't of interest to the user but there are exceptions.

First, cookies are a security and privacy risk. Consequently your Browser and any AntiVirus or privacy software you happen to be running are deeply interested in them. They have settings that block or delete cookies believed to be intrusive.

Secondly, all computer systems have limits. The cookie specification says your computer & browser should store at least 300 cookies of at least 4000 bytes each, and allow at least 20 cookies per server. If your computer runs out of cookie space, it may behave oddly. For example: you login to a website, and the website sends you a cookie confirming that. Then the server checks the cookie to see if you are logged in for whatever the lifetime of the cookie is. If your computer runs out of cookie space, or an anti-virus, anti-tracking, privacy , or speed-up program deletes the cookie, you are no longer logged in.

Thirdly, sometimes cookies get corrupted. This can cause much weirdness.

Everything you need to know about cookies here

Very likely you don't know much about your system settings, there are thousands of them. Most are set by software which is great until something goes wrong. It can be hard to pin down cookie problems. Several different things mess with them and they can be damaged, perhaps by a network problem.

May be worth telling your browser to clear cookies because doing so should fix space and corruption problems. The downside is it will also have you re-entering stuff again. How clearing out is done varies by Browser. Firefox hides it away under Menu->Library->History->Clear Recent History. Plenty of info on the web about how other browsers do it. On Windows, software like ccleaner will clean cookies and it may be easier to use.

The other thing that might help is switching to another browser: it has it's own cookie space, which could be clean.

Dave

Swapping computers will almost always log you off.

Neil

Is that true, even though I will not be logged in (to this forum) at all on my tablet for the coming next few days? I would hope that is not the case!

.

To put it a different way: If and when you log in using any device, 'the system' automatically logs you out on the previous device. ... you cannot be concurrently logged-in on two devices.

MichaelG.

I know that. I was not referring to that. I will be reading on the tablet and only posting from the laptop.

I will be using two devices but only logged in (to post replies) on the laptop. Got it?

.

Sorry I even tried to help !!

... Have a nice day

MichaelG.

I've just had the forum tell me I need to reset my password for the third time this week and one of my posts I made earlier today has disappeared.

Actually forget that last bit. I suspect I was censored.

Well, since my last post on this thread I have only been logged in on the wife's old laptop - I've read the forum on my tablet but not replied from it.

Only after a couple of days, the laptop made umpteen updates and I needed to log in again. Since then I have remained logged in without interruption. Prolly 28th Feb to date.

So it is (must be?):

1) my tablet - but this site is the only one where I get logged off repeatedly.

2) safari browser on the Apple tablet.

3) this forum software.

4) something else?

I'll now go back to the tablet to log in and see how long It stays logged in. Watch this space...

The conditions to log a user out must be defined in the program that is this website so it should be possible for the support team to explain the rules.

Mike

They have. It's been explained before, but again,

1 it uses cookies

2 it's time limited

3 you can only be logged in on one device

4 the server has a finite number of connections, if it runs out an incative user gets logged out to let someone else on.

Because I read the site, maybe several times a day, I never log off (bad security maybe!). I find that at times I need to log on several times a day and then I will go several months without having to log on at all! This has been going on for years. I don't think any of the explanations cover this observation!

The mystery doesn't bother me in the slightest. I simply recount it as evidence for computer savvy people to work out what might be going on.

Andrew.