Losing My Identity--or at Least my Login...

[Snorlax]

Hi...
I log into the forum on Windows 10 using the RoboForm login manager.
If I try to look at some photos or mark somw subforums as read, my logi
simply disappears--I can't post, look at pictures, etc.
Odd, eh?
Anyone else get this?
Any wisdom, Dave?
Jim

[ghmerrill]

I'm no expert, but I'd guess it has to do with how the architecture of the web site has been done. Maybe something about sub-domains or some such? Credentials not getting passed?

Why don't you just memorize all your passwords and ids like the rest of us do? Technology isn't the solution to everything, you know.

(The solution to this that my wife and I have is an incredibly long Word document that has a table of all our accounts, and related info in it. It's encrypted, of course, but you do have to look up stuff in it all the time. )

[John Morgan]

Yep, I got one of those, too. It is an Excel spreadsheet, encrypted, and contains all of my logins and user ids for a bazillion things. Anyone that says don't write your ids and passwords down, just memorize them, is bonkers. Then all the government ones have to be about a million characters long with one each of the special characters and then you have to change it about every week it seems. And to make it even a bigger pain, on some, once you login, they send you some code by email that you have to enter. Geeeeeesssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Life was simpler a long time ago.

[ChristianeSparkle]

I am having the same issue, but it's on my Android phone instead. I can log in, and then when I try to post, I will be prompted to relog, but it will never get past the login page. So I can't post at all on my phone's browser. I have to use my PC's web browser if I want to post anything.

[RickF]

I very seldom get logged out and come to this forum several times per day. I also use Win10 with a password app on my PC, iPhone and iPad. Sounds weird Jim don’t know what to suggest.

memorizing passwords!? Yeah right.

[davewerden]

I'm not sure what is happening to cause this. My login on 2 different PC's with Windows 10 is always stable. My iPhone is a different store, as it does not seem to want to keep me logged in for long periods.

One thing to note is that cookies can be sensitive to the full domain, so "dwerden.com" and "www.dwerden.com" could involve 2 different cookies. The website is supposed to force you to the "www" version, but I'm not sure it works for all browsers.

And a point of interest: Google Chrome is about to change how its browser works (so I have heard, anyway). The address bar will not show the prefix of the domain (i.e. "www", "store", etc.). This could cause a bit of confusion, and there are several complaints preceding the new version. Google may change their mind.

[ghmerrill]

Yeah, makes sense. If no URL format normalization is being done, then possibly a "front end" like RoboForm won't try to "knock on the right door" by attempting its own normalization in the event of failure. If that's the issue, then it raises some interesting security concerns because you wouldn't necessarily WANT your automated login application to be doing what it "thinks" is a reasonable normalization and take you into some site that you don't want to be on. But that would seem to mean that RoboForm would work only for sites (and "sub-sites") that internally always provide full URLs (which they SHOULD, but I imagine many may not).

I'd suggest contacting RoboForm support, describing exactly the scenario that's being encountered, and asking them what THEY think the problem is. They've probably already experienced it in one form or another. Possibly they have some URL normalization feature that's off by default and can be turned on as part of the user's configuration.

Obviously just guessing here.

[SteveP]

. . . . And to make it even a bigger pain, on some, once you login, they send you some code by email that you have to enter. Geeeeeesssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Life was simpler a long time ago.

True, but I've found that I can copy the code from the email and paste into the place they want it entered. Makes it a little simpler but still a pain.

[John Morgan]

True, but I've found that I can copy the code from the email and paste into the place they want it entered. Makes it a little simpler but still a pain.

Yes, I do the copy and paste, also. I'm actually a technically savvy sort (M.S. in Computer Science and a bunch of years at HP after my Army career). But, that doesn't mean I like the login hassles. I occasionally have to change my junk mail filter to not automatically delete "junk" because some of these emails with the code in them were going straight to my junk folder and being automatically deleted. Just a real pain. There needs to be a better way.

[ghmerrill]

There are better ways, but there are always trade-offs. Biometric login is relatively secure and I don't think can be "hacked" in any normal way. The system I"m typing this on now ( a Lenovo Thinkpad X1 "2 in 1" tablet/computer) offers it and I sometimes use it when I don't have by big monitor and keyboard hooked to it). But it introduces complications as a web login approach. And even it isn't perfect since the fingerprint (or whatever other pattern is used) could be stolen in various circumstances rather than decrypted. Also, I don't really care too much if someone hacks my password for this site. But I'm a lot more careful with access to sites that involve my financial resources.

I don't mind most of the inconvenience of maintaining multiple passwords for accounts. But I do get unhappy when I see login policies being adopted that introduce complication which doesn't add obvious increased protection to password breaking. And a lot of what you see in this area (and it continues to be the case in terms of "experts" offering password guidance on TV and such) makes sense only in the context of the the systems and password constraints (e.g., eight characters in length, case folding, no non-alphanumeric characters, etc.) that we had in the 80s and 90s.

[Snorlax]

UPDATE: Changed password. Still losing login at random times, including several attempts to post this.

[Snorlax]

This isn't happening on any other site.
Tried logging in here directly--without RoboForm...
no joy.
In fact, as I tried to post this, the site says I don't have permission to log in...
but my "Welcome, Snorlax" is visible above.

[davewerden]

How soon do you lose your session?

What is your operating system and your browser?

Do you have any browser extensions that help protect your privacy? Some of those will mess with cookies.

In some browsers you can define a site as a "trusted site." Is that an option?

I've used the site with no such trouble since it was born with its new software (many years ago). That would have taken me through Windows 2000, Windows 7, and Window 10. My browsers that have worked fine on my PC's include Opera, Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Edge, and Vivaldi. I'm stumped why we're picking on you!

[Snorlax]

How soon do you lose your session?==>Sometimes instantly, sometimes when I change from one subforum to another, almost always when I try to post. I have to copy every message I want to send & try a few times to post.

What is your operating system and your browser?==>Latest Win 10 and Firefox. I'll try other browsers later.

Do you have any browser extensions that help protect your privacy? Some of those will mess with cookies.==>Only Roboform. And I am allowing cookies.

In some browsers you can define a site as a "trusted site." Is that an option? Yes, but I haven't blocked anything...see above.

I've used the site with no such trouble since it was born with its new software (many years ago). That would have taken me through Windows 2000, Windows 7, and Window 10. My browsers that have worked fine on my PC's include Opera, Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Edge, and Vivaldi. I'm stumped why we're picking on you!

As the old song says..."Why's everybody always pickin' on me?" ;-)
Same drill with this...I clearly see "Welcome Snorlax" above but I get "
The following errors occurred with your submission

1. You do not have permission to perform this action. Please refresh the page and login before trying again.

[Snorlax]

Same issue on Edge. Still showing me as logged in, but getting the same error msg as above.
Can an ad blocker mess up like this?