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WiderMouthOpen's avatar
WiderMouthOpen
Esteemed Contributor II
3 months ago
Solved

Problems with forum sign in

Anyone else having intermittent problems with the forum's sign in process? Using Edge on a home-built Windows 11 desktop but have replicated the issue on different browsers and even before when I was using my older Windows 10 desktop. 

First, there is the issue that the forum doesn't keep you logged in long enough. Like sometimes as little as 15-30min, which means you can be kicked out before you finish writing a post. Luckily the forum has a system that caches your post after signing back in, but it is still annoying. I am not a expert, but I checked the cookies saved for the forum on my browser and I found some weird things. First there was a cookie that had an expiration date BEFORE the creation date. Next, I saw cookies from Youtube. I am using Edge with no plugins. What does the YouTube do here? Something to do with the support video on some of the forum's pages? Last, I didn't see any cookies that expired so quickly. 

Next, sometimes the site won't allow me sign out. I will click on my icon on the top right > sign out and it will just reload the page without signing me out. I have to clear the cookies to sign me out. 

Next, I sometimes can't sign in via my Pixel 7 phone. I get an "HTTP Status 401" error from the forum (not a browser error). This is just clicking "sign in" not after putting in my user/name password. I tried disabling cellular connection, so my phone was using same internet as desktop (which doesn't have problem) to see if it was a network issue. The problem goes away sometimes after a few minutes, other times it takes days. Either way, the problem goes away without me doing anything except what I mentioned to fix it. Multiple browsers on phone but never an issue on desktop. Happens when just on wifi, just on cellular, and when using both.

Last, it seems you need a Cox account to sign up for this forum now? When did that change? Might have been that way for a while so sorry if it's a weird question, but I was wondering when that change was made and why? I like belonging to multiple ISP forums to track national issues and get other trending data. Are forum accounts not attached to Cox accounts in danger of being deleted/blocked? Might that explain the weird issues my account has sometimes?

  • CurtB's avatar
    CurtB
    3 months ago

    It could be related to not having a Cox account.  Cox changed the sign in process sometime in the last few months.  You can now access Cox websites with a single sign in.  If you're already signed into forums and access another Cox site, it will briefly display "We're signing you in..." (the first time), but it doesn't prompt to re-enter credentials.  (This is a reason not to allow Cox to reset your account password).  If you have any other browser tab open (not just Cox), you can close and re-open a Cox website without signing in again.   

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  • CurtB's avatar
    CurtB
    Honored Contributor
    3 months ago
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    It could be related to not having a Cox account.  Cox changed the sign in process sometime in the last few months.  You can now access Cox websites with a single sign in.  If you're already signed into forums and access another Cox site, it will briefly display "We're signing you in..." (the first time), but it doesn't prompt to re-enter credentials.  (This is a reason not to allow Cox to reset your account password).  If you have any other browser tab open (not just Cox), you can close and re-open a Cox website without signing in again.   

    • WiderMouthOpen's avatar
      WiderMouthOpen
      Esteemed Contributor II
      3 months ago
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      That might explain issue 4, but the other issues have been happening since the Khoros update. Also, they are intermittent, so if something was changed on their backend that effects non Cox accounts, wouldn't that be constant? Also, I forgot the work around for issue 2. I think you mentioned it before. Thanks for your input.

      • CurtB's avatar
        CurtB
        Honored Contributor
        3 months ago
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        Yea, you'd expect websites to act the same way every time, but this is Cox.  So, who knows.   I haven't seen that particular error recently. 

        Closing all browser tabs should allow you to sign in to forums.

        I timed the forum time out when this version was first implemented, and it was 60 minutes then.  

        I've noticed some new posts don't get published.  They just disappear.  That's annoying.

        Posts drafted in Word now cause a forum error when they're posted.  It can be corrected by pasting the draft into a text document and copying that.  All formatting is lost, but at least it will post.

    • WiderMouthOpen's avatar
      WiderMouthOpen
      Esteemed Contributor II
      3 months ago
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      I use my grandma's Cox.net email address to sign in, and I think that went inactive around the time of the Yahoo transition. She also recently left Cox after moving to a state that didn't have them. How does that effect things? Can you still use an email address to sign into Cox even if that email isn't active? Since all email is handled by Yahoo, I don't understand why it would matter to Cox if they were active or not. It's just a username at that point, right? Then again, I don't know if/what Cox may have done to my account to allow me to post that is causing problems now. 

      • CurtB's avatar
        CurtB
        Honored Contributor
        3 months ago
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        Test 1: Forum timed out at 53 minutes   Test 2: 1 hour, 9 minutes    Not sure why it was different.  Last time out was when opening a different post.  Seems inconsistent but it has to be an event or timer.  

  • WiderMouthOpen's avatar
    WiderMouthOpen
    Esteemed Contributor II
    3 months ago
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    I just got the error signing in with my phone. The two new things I tried was requesting a desktop site from the browser which did nothing and deleting the temp files and cookies. That did fix the problem at least short-term. So why is a temp file or cookie issue keeping me from even trying to log in? And why is it only affecting my phone. Fast, how does it connect to the other problems? it seems like some problem with their authentication server but I'm just guessing. I also made sure there were no other tabs open on the browser and no other browsers open on the phone. I actually got rid of Chrome when de googling.