Say that three times fast.

I've noticed in the past few months a glitch when it comes to links to other posts, threads, or member profiles on SciForums. As far as I can remember, I only noticed it after the forum software was updated. For reference, I've been using the latest version of Firefox exclusively the whole time I've observed this.

Almost always, when I open a link to a local page in a new tab, I am logged out on that page when it loads. And I'm still logged out when I navigate SciForums through that tab. But here's the weird part: In the old tab, I'm still logged in, and continue to be so when I navigate SciForums through that tab.

I've been able to figure this much out: Usually when people post a link, they give "http://www.sciforums.com", with that "www" in there. These are the links that give me trouble; they're the ones that end up logging me out (if you could call it that). But if I take out the "www" in the URL field and go to that address, it takes me to the exact same page, as expected, but I'm logged in again.

Observe for yourself:
http://sciforums.com
http://www.sciforums.com

Open each of those links in different tabs. Then navigate SciForums in each. You should observe that in the first tab, you always stay logged in, while in the "www" tab, you're always logged out.

I've tried logging in on the "www" pages when I'm taken to them by the www links, but I don't stay logged in even if I check the "Remember my password" box. None of my actions on the www pages affects the regular pages in any way, as far as I've noticed. It's as if there are two SciForums, which are somehow exactly the same, but different. :confused:

I know of a couple work-arounds. One is to take out the "www". The other is to make use of the [Post=#][/Post] and [/Thread] tags. For example, this code:
[Thread=61792]Feral children.[/Thread]
makes:
[Thread=61792]Feral children.

Is anyone else experiencing this? And can it be fixed?

Open each of those links in different tabs. Then navigate SciForums in each. You should observe that in the first tab, you always stay logged in, while in the "www" tab, you're always logged out.
Hmm, I'm getting the exact opposite: http://sciforums.com logs me out, while http://www.sciforums.com keeps me logged on.

im getting the same as przyk

Hmm, I'm getting the exact opposite: http://sciforums.com logs me out, while http://www.sciforums.com keeps me logged on.
Me too.

I just logged on at "sciforums.com" (without the "www"). Now both links work as they should - I'm always logged on.

I guess this could be a cookie problem, if "sciforums.com" and "www.sciforums.com" are seen as different sites.

Well this is weird. :eek:

Well this is weird. :eek:
Maybe it's becasue Moderators are incompetent. :m:

I think it might be a DNS issue. The DNS for one link mightn't be the same for the other. I remember porfiry had several different domains and such, so maybe they're still out there? exosci.com and a few others.

I used to have this problem. However, I do not now.

Hmm, I'm getting the exact opposite: http://sciforums.com logs me out, while http://www.sciforums.com keeps me logged on.
i don't have this problem. only by playing around with the above two links i do.

You should observe that in the first tab, you always stay logged in, while in the "www" tab, you're always logged out.

I've had this happen every now and again, but I wouldn't ever call it 'always'. It's actually quite sporadic and random.
Some people have had issues staying logged in, period. Haven't heard complaints on that recently though, wonder if it cleared up or they just stopped complaining about it?

Maybe its browser issues if you're on hyper security settings and manually set which sites to accept cookies from. That's what I do with Moz and that may be true for Firefox too. As for IE..

As for IE..
The same issue, occasionally. I won't call it a problem - it isn't one.

.com is a Top Level Domain (TLD), of which sciforums is a Domain.

www is actually a subdomain of sciforums.

http://www.sciforums.com and http://sciforums.com could be made to point to completely different IPs and therefore run completely different websites.
This is due to a DNS entry, for instance from sciforums DNS entry:


...
sciforums.com. A IN 14400 64.*.*.*
www.sciforums.com. A IN 14400 64.*.*.*
(Although it can be written)
www A IN 14400 64.*.*.*
...
* removed numbers to lower misuse.


It is possible for the cookies for the forums to be set to be "Sitewide", namely they would deal with any sciforums.com sites, be they the domain or any subdomain. Altering those settings will perhaps force a signout however, so make sure you know your passwords.

Sorry I took this long to get back to you guys, but I realized something a day or two ago: I always leave out the "www" when I type the URL of a site into the URL field of my browser. I just find it cumbersome and unnecessary, especially considering Firefox will take me to the site I want regardless.

Could this be a factor?

Maybe its browser issues if you're on hyper security settings and manually set which sites to accept cookies from. That's what I do with Moz and that may be true for Firefox too. As for IE..

This doesn't seem to be the issue.

The fix is done by changing the default:
cookie domain:
to
cookie domain: [b].sciforums.com


This stops the forums software from attempting to automatically deal with the domain name based upon how you access the site (with www or not) and uses a strict domain scheme (Where www or without www will work)

It will require all sessions to be reset (everyone logged off by the administrators), otherwise people will be stuck with stale cookies that they will have to manually log off.

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/vboptions_group_http

That's not the problem though.
Whenever I get the log out thing, it's never because of a missing www. I rarely ever type the address in the bar at all as I have it bookmarked.
No, when I come across this problem it's always from a link. I click a link to a thread that opens in another tab (window) and in this new tab I'm not logged in.
Sometimes a refresh will automatically log in, sometimes not.
I'm still logged in back in the other window though.

More an annoyance than anything else.

This never happened before the upgrade.

If before the upgrade the Cookie Domain was Statically written rather than Dynamically allocated based upon virtualhosts, then it would express why the tab system occured like that.

In theory doing the fix mentioned above should solve that.

However if it doesn't then it might be an upgrade to the forums software to stop cookie hijacking and it just happens to do it with tabs. Only one way to be sure though.

"Cookie Domain" sounds like some kind of heaven.