Migrated from 7- now can't log on

Hi- new here, been using the product for years.

I had a funny working Version 7 system.  I locked the forum, backed up the database, installed Version 8.04, verified it was operational, then copied in the version 7 database and ran the Version 7 to Version 8 upgrade tool, which stated it was successful.

Then I attempted to log in.

First I got the "Forums Closed" message- not suprising, since I had locked the database before backing up/copying off.

But when I attempt to log in with the administrative user (which was changed), the CAPTCHA Security code won't take.

No matter what I enter, I get:

The Security Code entered did not match that displayed.
A new Security Code has been generated.

Over and over.  I've tried several different browsers (I use Firefox primarily), cleared cache, I'm at wits end.  I can't turn the forum back on, or even get into the Admin menus to turn the CAPTCHA stuff OFF, because it doesn't accept what I enter.

Fortunately, I can revert back to Version 7, but I'd rather get something a bit more up to date.

Is there any way I can forcibly disable the CAPTCHA stuff for the Administrator so I can at least TRY to get my forum working again?

Doug Brown
datsunaholic@hotmail.com

Upgrading the database will not effect your Admin account lohgin information as it doesn't do any alterations on account settings.

The issue you mention sounds like your server is unable to hold session data this will be due to either an issue on the server that needs to be fixed, teh server is load balanced, or you are using a web farm.

Either way the way to fix this is to open the file functions/functions_session_data.asp in notepad and follow the instructions to make the session data for your forum be stored in the database.

To be honest I would disable the web farm for the application pool as it makes little difference just courses problems, like this one.

Also by using the database to store session data for the forum you are actually harming performance as more costly database hits are required.

All a web farm is in IIS is that in the application pool you select to use more than 1 CPU thread (process) for the app pool. The problem then is that each process can not talk with the other so things like application variables, sessions, etc. will not work. The performance advantage to this is minimal as an single thread app pool can be shared by over 700 sites with no issues. The only advantage is if some rouge code brings down one thread (process) the other is still available.

You would be better off placing your site in it's own app pool but not using the web farm feature of the app pool. This way you would get more performance and if some rouge code from another site brings done the default app pool your site will continue to run as it is in it's own app pool.

If as you mention the server farm is lousy it sounds like your host is simply placing 100's of sites into the same app pool which is set as a server farm, and as you now have to use the forums database to store sessions you will have no advantage at all of using the server farm. If you are paying extra for this switch back as you are simply wasting your money.


Edited by -boRg- - 24 January 2007 at 9:12am