Logging Into Forums

[+Beffums]

Ok, so this is a rather trivial issue, so I didn't want to bother the people in the website forum, since I thought someone here might know the answer.

 

I have an account for my geopups:

Bo&Luke_TheGeopups

I've been trying to log into the forums from their account, so I can post to one of the geopup threads. Everytime I do, it auto-logs me in as Beffums. I've checked - I do not have the box checked for "remember me". I've tried logging out as me and clicking "log in" (while in the forums), and it refuses to accept their username and password (but I checked that too, and the password matches what gc.com e-mailed me).

 

Is the problem the & and the _ ? It's the only thing I can think of, but I know others log into the forums with symbols in their names, so I wasn't sure. Any thoughts/ideas? I've been trying to log in as them for several weeks, and it consistently refuses to, or just logs into the forums as "me". (I even went so far as to create a new account on the computer, log out as me, switch user to them, log back into GC.com as them, click on the forums and - no go. still wouldn't let them log in. I understand that letting my pups surf the forums isn't essential, it's just puzzling me as to why it's happening more than anything.

[+Beffums]

Oh, I should add, just to check, I tried logging into my husband's gc account, and going into the forums from it - it did, and said it was him in the forums. no switchover to beffums. So, it seems to be specific to their account (ok, of the 2 accounts I tried!).

[bogleman]

Don't hold me to it but log into the main GC page then look for the link to the forums then enter all the information there. I think it is a cookie thing but don't hold me to it. I really don't remember how I ended up getting here but I think this was the route I took.

[+Beffums]

yeah, I thought it was a cookie thing too, that's why I tried logging out of my computer and everything, re-booting, and starting with a new user on the computer. Maybe what I need to do is to try it tomorrow from my computer at work... I'll see if that works, if it's a cookie thing. Thanks. (if anyone else has another idea, feel free to suggest - I'll try whatever, just to figure out why)

[+FamilyDNA]

If it's a cookie thing, you can go to your internet options and delete the cookies on your system. Logging out won't clear them.

[+arpegio]

definitely sounds like a cookie issue... I'd go into Firefox:tools:options and find the cookies for the domain name and delete them... what? you're using Firefox right?

[+Beffums]

definitely sounds like a cookie issue... I'd go into Firefox:tools:options and find the cookies for the domain name and delete them... what? you're using Firefox right?

Yup, using Firefox, though I also tried on IE and Mozilla. Heck, I got into wondering about it last week, and I'd actually downloaded netscape just for the fun of seeing if I could log in as the pups through a new browser where I knew I hadn't used it with this account.

 

Just cleared the cookies (well, logged out and closed Firefox, just in case, reopened and cleared cookies and tried to log in), but still can't log in as them. I also tried from a computer I've never logged into the forums on, and it didn't work there either - I'm now thinking it's not a cookies thing (since I don't think I'd ever gotten onto GC.com on that old computer, let alone the forums). I'll try from a computer at work tomorrow, just in case I just don't remember using that computer before, but I'm thinking there's something else going on...

 

When they did the name lock-down, did it add any restrictions to usernames with symbols in them?

[bogleman]

I tried with my sons account and ran into the same problem. Could be an IP thing that the software uses, GC does not like sock puppets. Post under the established accounts. My son has his own account but everything goes through me and I am not ready to let him get sucked into the "net".

[+arpegio]

Is it possible that you have some sort of anti-spyware (anti-cookie) setting in effect which is making the system revert to using IP addresses to check identity rather than cookies? In Firefox, you can exclude cookies from a specific domain. I'm not sure if it's obvious this is being done once you do it. But these PHP-based systems have IP-based alternatives for storing state information if the client has cookies disabled.

[+Beffums]

well, I just went to a computer lab (ah, the joys of a college campus - random computers you've never used before). It would not let me log in as the pups, but did let me log in as me (so, the site isn't blocked in the lab). I'm thinking it's a forums thing. The account is a real account, not a sock puppet (like your son's account is a real account), and a new computer in a different city from my house should have it's own IP address. Then again, the system has no problems with me logging out and logging back in as my husband's account.

 

A thought - does your son's account name have any symbols in it? That's the only thing I've thought of as to why it's not working (I know the forums won't let you PM someone with symbols in their name). I'm more puzzled than frustrated - just find it odd and wonder why.

[+Beffums]

Is it possible that you have some sort of anti-spyware (anti-cookie) setting in effect which is making the system revert to using IP addresses to check identity rather than cookies? In Firefox, you can exclude cookies from a specific domain. I'm not sure if it's obvious this is being done once you do it. But these PHP-based systems have IP-based alternatives for storing state information if the client has cookies disabled.

I don't think our anti-spyware prevents all cookies (I have gc.com on the "good" sites for that program). Plus, hopefully the two other computers I've tried (one at home, and one here at campus, logging in with a work id to the computer) would have different IP settings.

[+arpegio]

Is it possible that you have some sort of anti-spyware (anti-cookie) setting in effect which is making the system revert to using IP addresses to check identity rather than cookies? In Firefox, you can exclude cookies from a specific domain. I'm not sure if it's obvious this is being done once you do it. But these PHP-based systems have IP-based alternatives for storing state information if the client has cookies disabled.

I don't think our anti-spyware prevents all cookies (I have gc.com on the "good" sites for that program). Plus, hopefully the two other computers I've tried (one at home, and one here at campus, logging in with a work id to the computer) would have different IP settings.

 

Try turning on the "prompt" when cookies are set and seeing what's going on when you log in/out of these various accounts. It could be that two disparate systems are using the same cookie name and getting confused.