Can't login to Naturescapes!

Coming to you from my girlfriends computer (where I can log in).... For some unknown reason, last week I could not sign in on my own computer to NSN using my old password I had used for over two years. I e-mailed NSN and got a new password. When I sign in it works and tells me that I've successfully signed in, but only a second or two later it reverts back to the login in (again) page. I repeat the process, and the same thing happens. I run Zone Alarm for anti-virus, etc. A couple of weeks ago I installed Registry Mechanic, but had no problems for two weeks after that. Any ideas?

Try clearing your cookies and cache.

I had this problem recently. Clearing cookies solved it.

Greg

I have this problem A LOT, and so far have not been able to figure why it happens when it happens. It has mostly started since the site upgrade for me.

It would have been better to have posted this under the NatureScapes.net Help forum, as this is what that forum is for.

I too have to do this often (clearing cookie and cache) just to log back on. Not sure what is causing it, I do not encounter it on any other web site.

At the bottom right of every screen on NatureScapes there is a link that says: Delete all board cookies.

That should clear it up without killing all of the other cookies on your computer.

What browser are you using? If you're using Safari, make sure you don't have "Private Browsing" turned on.

I use IE for my browser for NSN and it happens to me about once a week! You have to delete the Brousing History, Cookies and Temp Files under Tools. Close down IE and reopen and put in your password etc to get back in. Just deleting Cookies at the bottom of the NSN page doesn't do it! If fact it makes no difference for me in IE if I do that step or not. Only deleting from Tools in IE works.

I use yahoo.ca for my e-mail from NSN so that is why I am often going back in from there. It has never happened from Mozilla Firefox.

I think that means you are using some sort of program that does some cleaning on your PC that is taking out something critical to NSN.

I also use IE7, and my experiences are pretty well the same as Eleanor's. I find it to be a bit of a PITA. I am only using VIPRE antivirus and RegSupremePro (manually), but it did exactly the same thing when I was using AVAST.

I also am using IE7. About once a week I will arrive at the website forums only to find that I appear to be logged out. If I try to log in, it seems to be unsuccessful and I remain logged out. I exit IE7, go to my cookies folder using Windows Explorer, delete ONLY the NSN cookies (there are two of them, I need to delete both). I then relaunch IE7, hit the NSN site, log in and it takes, I am now logged in. It will recur perhaps later in the day, or perhaps a week later, hard to say, but it is a persistent problem.

Note: using the "clear NSN cookies" link at the bottom of the page absolutely do not work in my case. I have tried it, alone and in conjunction with clearing the IE7 cache and history, to no avail. The only solution I have found is to manually delete the NSN cookies.

This seems to first occur after the upgrading of the NSN site. I have not encountered this sort of cookie problem on any other website, portal, etc.

See the last point in this post at the top of the Help forum (announcements):
http://www.naturescapes.net/phpBB3/view ... 4&t=130513

Royce, I have built a totally new PC since the upgrade to the new site, and it still happens to me all the time. While it may be a browser issue, why then is it only a browser issue with NSN, as it does not appear to happen with any other sites? It is also very random and very confusing as to why and when it happens. Sometimes it will happen two or three times in one day, and then not happen again for two weeks. Seems pretty odd to me

It is odd, and I don't mean to imply that it is "only" a browser issue but to point out that it's nothing to do with bad passwords, viruses, bad registry entries or any of the other stuff that is sometimes questioned. (Unless perhaps some people are running a utility that is whacking an NSN cookie or something else our server needs for login to work properly.) As to the specific browser, as far as I know it is only happening with IE (6 and 7) -- not Firefox, Safari, Opera or others.

Manually deleting cookies and clearing the cache will cure it in every case I've seen so far. While something about our login code obviously is not interacting correctly with IE, no other browser appears to have this issue. To date Nicholas has not been able to reproduce or diagnose what is going on. So for now this work-around is where it's at for IE users...

It seems clear to me it has something to do with the updating of the NSN site. I wonder if some custom programming was done related to the cookies that is causing this. I've gotten my hands dirty writing cookie-manipulation code for websites and it is not trivial, there might be some non-standard or unusual aspect of the cookie updating (as pages are browsed) that is behind this. Were several cookies combined into a single NSN cookie when the site was updated, perhaps?

I'm guessing IE6 and IE7 represent the largest population of browsers, NSN may be losing participation because of it. I know there have been days I didn't want to deal manually clearing cookies and cache and instead moved on to something else.

By the way, I don't think the problem is in the point of login. Rather, it is at the point when an already-logged-in visitor returns to the site, the credentials and login-status stored in the cookie is checked at that point and something goes wrong, requiring the cookie to be manually deleted before anything further can be done in that account.

Phil Colla wrote:It seems clear to me it has something to do with the updating of the NSN site. I wonder if some custom programming was done related to the cookies that is causing this. I've gotten my hands dirty writing cookie-manipulation code for websites and it is not trivial, there might be some non-standard or unusual aspect of the cookie updating (as pages are browsed) that is behind this. Were several cookies combined into a single NSN cookie when the site was updated, perhaps?

There was no new custom programming done related to the cookies (or the login area at all). The forums are more or less off-the-shelf. The changes made were primarily in the skin. There's one or two additional bits and pieces (such as displaying the member number under the user's avatar), but that all takes place way after the security checks.

There is a known issue with people using the personal domain names (such as gregdowning.naturescapes.net). When they hit the main site sometimes the full domain name gets carried over, other places it's dropped to http://www.naturescapes.net or even just naturescapes.net. When that happens the user is effectively logged out but the cookies are in a confused state.

Phil Colla wrote: I'm guessing IE6 and IE7 represent the largest population of browsers, NSN may be losing participation because of it. I know there have been days I didn't want to deal manually clearing cookies and cache and instead moved on to something else.

By the way, I don't think the problem is in the point of login. Rather, it is at the point when an already-logged-in visitor returns to the site, the credentials and login-status stored in the cookie is checked at that point and something goes wrong, requiring the cookie to be manually deleted before anything further can be done in that account.

There could be more than the issue noted above in play. However I have been able to duplicate the issue in other browsers by doing what I mentioned above. I've also seen it happen in IE on machines that are running spyware detection software that automatically removed one of the NSN cookies.

VIOLA! Thanks everyone! I had to manually delete the cookies manually from the toolbar as people suggested. I use IE 7, and the "delete board cookies" at the bottom of the page wasn't enough.

I also had this problem using AOL after the changeover. Someone from NSN told me that NSN doesn't support the AOL browser, so I switched to Firefox and haven't had a problem since. But I do, as a matter of course, clear my temp files, cookies and history weekly. Firefox remembers the passwords I tell it to, so I don't lose my NSN password or any others that I save.

When NSN first transitioned to the "new" forum, I had tons of problems logging in and just about gave up; it was a huge pain to have to type everything back in again after deleting all my temp files, cookies, etc. from my IE browser. I finally found a workaround solution that worked for me and perhaps it might hopefully work for somebody else (I checked with one other person, and apparently it worked for him).

It had to do with coming to NSN via clicking on the email notifications. Back then, I used to automatically subscribe to all topics I participated in. At some weird point, I would get locked out and unable to log in. I'd have to delete all my cookies and history/temp files, not just from here, but from IE as well. After I figured out that clicking the email link was causing the problem, if I happened to be subscribed to a thread, instead of using the notification link, I'd come here physically when I wanted to look at that thread. Haven't had login issues since.

I never knew exactly how many clicks on notifications it took, it seemed random, but I suppose if I wanted to get locked out again, I can try counting it (really, I don't want to go on that road again ) ... Anyway, I think that is the why of the seemingly random nature - there were some days I was clicking on email notifications several times, on other days, none.