Auto log off??

[ToDisney]

Is it possible that I have something set up that causes me to be logged off after a SHORT period of time??
I can just be reading different post. But the most annoying is when I am responding to one and get distracted, then when I complete my post, it comes up with the "you are not allowed to post... you are not logged in..."
Something to that effect.
It's not like it has been hours. I'm talking less that 45mins! If I've typed up a post or replied to someone elses that was lengthy, then at this point I have LOST everything I just wrote.
I 've been told before to "clean the Cookies"
I do that regularly (as well as temp folders and so on.) Plus eveytime I get to legitimately log out it says "all cookies cleared"
Any advice, knowledge or info??
Thanks!

[mjm]

You don't say what browser you're using. But, do you have your preferences set to not accept cookies? I vaguely remember a logout problem related to that setting. You should have your preferences set to at least accept cookies from "sites you navigate to".

[albino_pygmy]

Do you check the box that says "remember me" while logging in? If you check it, it'll keep you on until click log out.

[Goofy4TheWorld]

Checking the "remember me" box will help extend the period of time that you can have inactivity and not be logged off, but it is NOT a fix to the problem you are describing.

Intercot has a bug which has not been addressed that logs you out after a certain period of inactivity. I have experienced this many, many times, and it drives me crazy too.

If you walk away from your computer, or just spend a long time typing a post, you will be logged off. There is no solution for this problem currently available. I have experienced it with both Internet Explorer and Firefox. My experience has been if you are inactive for more than 15 to 20 minutes or so, you will get the bump.

My wife gets so mad at me, because once I log on to the "new posts" on Intercot, I will not leave the computer for anything short of the house being on fire (not just smoke, actual fire) because I know I will get logged off

[Ed]

That's odd. I've been continually logged on for months at a time, and have never been automatically logged off; I have to purposely click on the "Log Out" button on those rare occasions when I WANT to log off. This is the first I have heard of Intercot "having a bug that has not been addressed".

Perhaps John will chime in and can shed some light on this; it's way beyond my technical expertise.

[Piglet822]

That's odd. I've been continually logged on for months at a time, and have never been automatically logged off; I have to purposely click on the "Log Out" button on those rare occasions when I WANT to log off. This is the first I have heard of Intercot "having a bug that has not been addressed".

Perhaps John will chime in and can shed some light on this; it's way beyond my technical expertise.

Same here, I stay logged in all the time.

[gueli]

Normally I have no problems- but I just was replying to a post when guess what - I got logged off & all I wrote is gone...GRRR

I happened to see this post and thought to comment

[PirateLover]

I haven't been logged off in the middle of posting but I've noticed lately that every now and then when I hit "reply" it prompts me to log in when I already was logged in. What I mean is, I may have just responded to another post, yet all of the sudden I'm being asked to log in again. It has happened to me on two computers.

[MinnieMommie]

That's odd. I've been continually logged on for months at a time, and have never been automatically logged off; I have to purposely click on the "Log Out" button on those rare occasions when I WANT to log off. This is the first I have heard of Intercot "having a bug that has not been addressed".

Perhaps John will chime in and can shed some light on this; it's way beyond my technical expertise.

I have to agree here. As long as I check "remember me" when I log on I will remain logged on indefinetely. In this instance the only way I get logged out is if I hit "log out".

[Ruprect]

Since I have some knowledge as a web programmer I can shed some light on the topic. The questions is can I make it make sense.

It is likely that everyone will be logged off after a period of inactivity. Usually 20 minutes sometimes 15. It is the nature of the World Wide Web. The "Remember Me" checkbox puts a cookie on your computer so that the next time you come to the Intercot website it will automatically log you in. It doesn't keep you logged in. The only thing that really keeps you from logging out is activity. There are other instances in which you could be logged out but it usually due to a web server process shutting down or some other technical issue.

Keep reading if you would like a more techincal explanation on how the web works...

Web pages are stateless. They don't know who you are from one page to the next unless the programmer tells them. In order for me to make this reply when I click submit the contents of my reply, the post I am replying to and my session cookie (more on that in a second) need to be sent to the Intercot server. This is so that whatever location I am sending this information to will be able to perform the expected action.

Sessions were created to allow a web site to maintain some kind of state. Depending on how the site is programmed information about your current visit to the site will be maintained in what we call a session state. This information is stored on the web server with a unique lookup key. This key is sent to your PC as a session cookie. When you visit a website it's corresponding session cookie will be sent to the site as well. If no cookie exists a new one is created. The default expiration time for a session cookie is 20 minutes. If you are inactive on the site for more than 20 minutes the cookie is expired and not sent to the server. Therefore you need to start a new session. If you have checked "Remember Me" there is a persistent cookie that resides on your PC with your username most likely so that Intercot can recognize you when creating a new session.

In summary it is not a bug that logs you off. It is actually good security practice to log you off after periods of inactivity. Hope this clears things up.

[Goofy4TheWorld]

Since I have some knowledge as a web programmer I can shed some light on the topic. The questions is can I make it make sense.

It is likely that everyone will be logged off after a period of inactivity. Usually 20 minutes sometimes 15. It is the nature of the World Wide Web. The "Remember Me" checkbox puts a cookie on your computer so that the next time you come to the Intercot website it will automatically log you in. It doesn't keep you logged in. The only thing that really keeps you from logging out is activity. There are other instances in which you could be logged out but it usually due to a web server process shutting down or some other technical issue.

Keep reading if you would like a more techincal explanation on how the web works...

Web pages are stateless. They don't know who you are from one page to the next unless the programmer tells them. In order for me to make this reply when I click submit the contents of my reply, the post I am replying to and my session cookie (more on that in a second) need to be sent to the Intercot server. This is so that whatever location I am sending this information to will be able to perform the expected action.

Sessions were created to allow a web site to maintain some kind of state. Depending on how the site is programmed information about your current visit to the site will be maintained in what we call a session state. This information is stored on the web server with a unique lookup key. This key is sent to your PC as a session cookie. When you visit a website it's corresponding session cookie will be sent to the site as well. If no cookie exists a new one is created. The default expiration time for a session cookie is 20 minutes. If you are inactive on the site for more than 20 minutes the cookie is expired and not sent to the server. Therefore you need to start a new session. If you have checked "Remember Me" there is a persistent cookie that resides on your PC with your username most likely so that Intercot can recognize you when creating a new session.

In summary it is not a bug that logs you off. It is actually good security practice to log you off after periods of inactivity. Hope this clears things up.

Holly Cow! This post hits the nail on the head. This is exactly what I, and several others, have been experiencing and posting about from time to time. I have previously posted about this very problem, and John sent me a PM wanting to know exactly what I was experiencing, but I never heard back.

The detail about "not being logged out" is right on, because it only makes me log back in if I am trying to post. If I just walk away from the computer, I always felt as if it was starting a new session for me, restarting my "new posts" button, and that's exactly what this post explains.

While this post does clear this up, based on this post, it seems to me that the time limit on sessions can be adjusted. I browse a couple of other non-Disney forums, and I can leave the window open all day and come back to right where I left off, as long as I do not close the window. While that may be on the extreme the other way, I ask that consideration be given to increasing the time that a session lasts to something closer to an hour, because slow typers or people that get distracted easily do experience this "problem" frequently, and loosing a post after spending 30 minutes typing it out can be a real downer on the rest of our day!!!

I know that this is just a minor blimp in the overall scheme of things on Intercot, but it does drive me (and some others) bananas. If it can be adjusted, then thank goodness in advance. If it cannot, I have my workarounds, and they will just have to keep working for me. I'm not trying to be mean about this, just hoping to at least get some answers (which I now have) and hopefully a solution.

So, as I said in my last post about this a few months ago:

and John could program the site to squirt me with water every two minutes and I would keep coming back!!

[John]

Just wondering - is everyone that is having an issue using firefox? There have been some issues reported but it seems to be mac and firefox related which would explain why the vast majority of people have no problem - http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1668903

I'm going to change the logout time to 30 minutes and see if that helps some of you.

[Goofy4TheWorld]

I have experienced this using:
Internet Explorer 7
Internet Explorer 6
Firefox (whatever is current edition)

I have experienced this on systems using:
Windows Vista
Windows XP
Windows 98

I have experienced this with each of these browser's security settings set anywhere from "Fort Knox" nothing-in-nothing-out, to wide open "come & steal my information" any cookie from anywhere. Same results regardless of these settings.

As for the majority of people not having this problem, I believe that the answer to that is that "they type faster." And/Or they do not make long posts or they do not get distracted while browsing the boards. I fall into all of these criteria.

Can you tell us what the logout time used to be?

[Ruprect]

I have experienced this using:
Internet Explorer 7
Internet Explorer 6
Firefox (whatever is current edition)

I have experienced this on systems using:
Windows Vista
Windows XP
Windows 98

I have experienced this with each of these browser's security settings set anywhere from "Fort Knox" nothing-in-nothing-out, to wide open "come & steal my information" any cookie from anywhere. Same results regardless of these settings.

As for the majority of people not having this problem, I believe that the answer to that is that "they type faster." And/Or they do not make long posts or they do not get distracted while browsing the boards. I fall into all of these criteria.

Can you tell us what the logout time used to be?

To be honest with you it just sounds like expected behavior. What I tend to do for longer responses is type them up in notepad and copy/paste the reply when I'm done. Upping the timeout period may help for the few who need it but could cause server issues down the road. Each active user's session needs to be maintained in memory on the server (or in a database but I don't think that is the setup here) and so the more active users the more impact on site performance you have. It's a balancing act really.

Good luck John.

I'm remembering now why I'm a programmer and not an admin.

[PirateLover]

I do use Firefox.

[ToDisney]

I use Internet Explorer 7 (mainly)

I have used Safari before too.

It was interesting to see that so many others had this problem also.

To: Ruprect, I used to type out my post on notepad so I could read it over an have a copy in case when I posted it, poof the sign in page came up instead of my post. By for some reason now it will not accept the paste from somewhere else... odd.
So there has been many times that I have typed up a responce just to have it dissappear, and I never rewrote it just be cause it was sooo aggravating.
I hope that the extra time John adds helps. I know I type slow, But I also like to go back and look at things that I read in other posts.
Thanks for helping everyone!
I miss adding my worth (or sometimes just a penny)
 

[samrawet]

GREAT JOB

[stitchaholic]

i just had to go in to the options menu on this site and click the remember me,and i am always logged on,no more problems