Can anyone tell me why, for the last 2-3 weeks, I must log on each and every time I go to the EU forum?
It doesn’t matter whether or not I check the box “Log me on automatically each visit.”

Most likely answer is that the software is broken. In technical terms, this is probably an open source PHP (with MySQL) based forum software. They might have installed a new forum version/release or patched a current release - for other issues. The owners and admins need to contact the webmaster or tech support people who administer the software, applications and websites.

Is it happening with everybody else?

Not to me.

Web-browser settings for saving cookies may be the issue. These settings may have been changed by program updates. If you use a web browser like Internet Explorer, you should be able to check and, if necessary, reset these cookie settings so that cookies are saved from visited web sites on which you sign in. If cookies are saved from these sites, you won’t have to sign in each time you visit.

Me neither.
What Lancia said was my first thought too.

Try it with another browser. Instead of Internet Explorer or Safari, you might want to try Google Chrome, Firefox or Opera (i.e. assuming it’s a Windows machine, and not a Mac or Linux. But all these browsers are installable on Windows, Mac and Linux). If you still experience it with all browsers and nobody else on this forum has the issue - it’s definitely on your machine.

Another possible reason why you are having to sign in each time you visit this site is you may have an anti-spyware program that deletes cookies. The setting for the program might have been changed recently, from keeping to deleting cookies, without your knowing it through an update, and that’s why you have seen a change. I see from internet forums that losing needed cookies for sign-in has been a problem for some customers using various anti-spyware products. Most of these products have options to turn off cookie detection and removal. Maybe you can find that option and reset it.

The problem for me is, I don’t want most cookies to remain on my computer; I want most of them to be detected and removed. But I don’t rely on my anti-spyware program to remove them, so I turn off their cookie detection and removal. What I do is remove cookies I don’t want and leave the rest alone. I do this through a program (from Piriform) called CCleaner, which removes temporary files and cookies from your computer when you ask it to, and it can save the cookies you want to keep for things like remembering the information required to sign on to this site and your email accounts. The program does a lot of other good things like cleaning the registry of unnecessary files, and that together with removing temporary files and cookies really speeds up your computer by freeing up space. It exists in a free version and a paid version. I have used the free version for more than 5 years, removing temporary files and unwanted cookies almost every day–it’s that fast–and it works just fine.

Hi lancia,
I have to agree with CCleaner. If you actually install the File Hippo updater at filehippo.com/, it will inform folks when a new version of the free CCleaner is available. If you run a good paid or free anti-virus, then I would install the free version of Malwarebytes and run a weekly quick scan, along with a weekly one from your anti-virus. Malwarebytes doesn’t deal with cookies, but it’s a good check for bad stuff on your machine.

You know what? Shouldn’t there be a forum topic thread for tech issues? (i.e. hint, hint).

I did go to the PHPBB forum discussions on this issue at is.gd/fU5HVa. They are the biggest PHPBB, open source free software, as far as I know. On the discussion, one person said this:

Is this a possibility?

When I first downloaded the free version of CCleaner, I was so impressed with it that I sent the company a contribution for about the same amount that the paid version costs today. Because of that contribution, I am informed via email when an update is available.

I agree with you about Malwarebytes. I have it on my computer and use it at least weekly. It’s amazingly efficient, and it finds PUPs that sometimes sneak though even the best anti-spyware programs, like Webroot SecureAnywhere, which I use. A friend of mine was having problems with a very slow and erratic performance on her laptop computer. I downloaded CCleaner and Malwarebytes and used them on her computer. Malwarebytes took a very long time analyzing her computer and found over 500 items, which were then removed!

Yes, I know that if I log out of this forum, then I have to log in next time. So, I simply don’t log out. That has kept me logged in each time I come here. I don’t know if that relates to Paidion’s problem. It sounded as though his having to log in each time was a recent problem, suggesting that he has not been logging out.

Thank you all for your suggestions.

However, I do have the Evangelical Universalism cookie permanently among my cookies—and my web browser is Firefox. No cookies are removed except those I deliberately remove because I don’t want them.

However, I am going to try something in a few minutes. I WILL remove the EU cookie and then I’ll login, and when EU puts a cookie in again, maybe that one might work.

Well, that didn’t work either!

While you probably are doing this, I would make sure I have the latest production ready version of Firefox and the latest operating system patches or updates. It would be like reading versions of the NLT, NIV and ESV. You have the best results with the latest revisions,

The system I have works fine on the theos.org forum. I am logged on automatically each time on that forum.
So I think there must be some other difference.

If I were you, I would test the different browsers. How does it work with the default Windows IE or Apple Safari browsers? That would be easy to test, as they are already installed by default. If you have the same issues, how about seeing how it behaves on Google Chrome or Opera? I’m currently going through a video series on Semantica Portuguese out of Brazil (i.e. Interesting how it differs from related romance languages, like French and Spanish). I get different results in different browsers. For example, I can’t get CC to work in Firefox but it works well in Google Chrome.

Hi Paidion,

You said you use Firefox. In case you don’t know about these settings, here is help from Firefox on checking to see if your login cookies are being deleted for the Evangelical Universalist site.

In the linked passage, check especially these sections: “Password Manager Settings” section and “Passwords Being Automatically Cleared” section.

Good luck!

Maybe [tag]Alex Smith[/tag] can tell us what it might be? I’m not having any difficulty.

Sonia

Tagging our actual sysadmin [tag]Alex Smith[/tag], unless the baby is wiping him out…

I was having exactly the same problem during that period with my office computer, but not with my house computer. At the time I chalked it up to ATT having recently forced us to convert to Uverse or whatever it’s called, which was messing with our ability to access pages at all (randomly about 1 out of 3 attempts the load would hang and might or might not ever complete, but almost always attempting the pageload again would work.)

Turned out after many annoyed calls to ATT tech support there was a rare router malfunctioning happening at a node in town somewhere.

They just happened to fix that shortly before I stopped having to re-sign into the forum, so I inferred the two problems were connected and resolved by the hardware fix.

Anyway, I’m not having that problem anymore, and haven’t had it for… a week maybe? But I did want to add my evidence to the pot in case that helped narrow down the cause and the solution.

(I’m running MacOS 10.4.11 at work with Namoroka 3.6.28 which is a fan-based modification of the last Firefox version supported for this OS; but Namoroka itself is now rather old and hasn’t been upated in a while. We desperately need a more modern accounting platform…)

Meanwhile, I’m moving the thread to the “forum help” category, but I’ll leave a shadow here to point the way.

I like the suggestions above but I’ll also throw another one out there… it seems that usually when your IP address changes (which does happen as most ISPs use dynamic IPs) it requires you to re-logon. To test this theory, google “what is my ip” each time & see if it’s changing (could explain Jason’s issue too)?

(I haven’t made any changes to the backend for a few months)

Thanks again, everyone, for your attempts to help me. You had many interesting suggestions. However, nothing changed in that I still have to log on
each time.

Alex, I tried the experiment you suggested. My IP did not change.