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Shatz 
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Joined: 30 October 2004
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 Topic: Windows 2003 Server Forum Problems
Posted: 30 October 2004 at 4:20pm |
Hi All,
I've perused the current support articles and don't find anything that directly addresses my current dilemna. Below are the problems and things I've tried. ALL of these problems cropped up after moving the entire site and forums from a machine running Windows 2000 Server to one running Windows 2003 Server. Thanks in advance for any help.
- Users cannot login either with Quick Login or Expanded Login. They receive a "Sorry, the Username or Password entered is incorrect. Please try again." Repeated attempts yield the same result.
- I cannot login via the /admin login screen. Here, strangely enough, the numerical security code doesn't always show all of the images. It's implied that this is a direct result of a cookie problem. I checked the cookie that's being set on my machine and it properly reflects the domain name. I can login if I download the forum database to my development machine which is running Windows 2000. That's the only way I've been able to get in. So I make changes to the forum config. on the dev. box, then upload it to the Windows 2003 web server. Still, nothing ever works.
- I downloaded the security patch and tested it on the dev. box, then uploaded the pages to the web server but this didn't seem to have any direct affect on the problems I'm having.
- I tried setting the domain name that's stored in the cookie manually by adding a line to the common.asp file. That didn't work. I did notice that the cookie was properly recording the domain before so I didn't think this would have any affect but tried it anyway.
Any help that can be provided would be GREATLY appreciated. I did see an article from "Scientist" (can't remember entire screen name) who said he was experiencing something similar to me but he didn't expand on what he did to fix his problem.
If anyone would like to check out the forum admin login page, you can see the images for the security code don't load:
http://www.proracingseries.com/forums/admin
Thanks again in advance for any help that can be provided. Though I tried for an hour to find something, my apologies if I overlooked an article that directly applies to these conditions. By the way, GREAT PRODUCT !! I looked forward to continued use of it once these hurdles are overcome. :)
Take Care,
Shatz
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theSCIENTIST
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Joined: 31 July 2003
Location: United Kingdom
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Posted: 30 October 2004 at 5:06pm |
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Hi Shatz, yes it was me that posted something similar to your problem.
I also run WinSrv2003 (Std Ver) and on some domains the login process was very unreliable, sometimes I could login, but most often than not I just couldn't, even that I was using the right user/pass, so as usual when I face such dilemas, I go either for a walk or just have a bath and ponder on the issue, so there I was bathing, when it hitted me, it must be something on IIS that some domains use differently, digging deeper I determined that those domains affected were all using the same application pool in relation to those that worked fine.
As you know IIS6 introduced application pools, they are great for stability and web server availability in case some problems develope with some web sites, I could determine that the application pool used by the domains where I was having login problems, was very relaxed, what I mean was that the recycling of memory and processes was not occuring as often, so I changed it to a more aggressive setting and guess what? WWF logins on problematic domains were all fixed, now they work 100% of the time as they should.
I can send you my app pool settings when I get home, so you can create a new app pool with these settings and have your web site use this new app pool.
Other than that, you are not using any client anti-virus software like Norton Anti-Virus on your server are you? This is know to disrupt ASP functinality.
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Shatz
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Posted: 30 October 2004 at 5:50pm |
Just an additional items of interest...
- I just tried to download and install the latest WebWiz Forums (7.9) It worked for the first few times I logged in then it started exhibiting the problems mentioned above once again once I uploaded it to the Windows 2003 Server.
- Also, on the /admin login page, if you hit your browser's refresh button enough times the security images will eventually show correctly. However, when attempting to login, the process still indicates that the security code entered doesn't match the one displayed.
- I've started a support case with my hosting provider to have them check the web server for any application or session level settings that could be causing problems. Nothing heard as of yet.
I'll post anything I find out as I continue to work on this since forums are a big part of the site.
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Shatz
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Posted: 30 October 2004 at 6:16pm |
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Also, I just now tried setting blnUseApplicationVariables = false in the common.asp file and this didn't help either.
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dpyers
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Posted: 31 October 2004 at 1:14am |
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Don't have your answer, but I noticed if it I hit refresh a couple oy times, more and more security images start to show up until every refresh shows all images.
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Lead me not into temptation... I know the short cut, follow me.
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WebWiz-Bruce
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Joined: 03 September 2001
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Posted: 31 October 2004 at 6:03am |
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The security images use a session variable to display the security
code, which is displayed using the file security_image.asp, that uses
the ADO.Stream object to stream the image from the server.
As thimage is not displaying it suggests a problem with either session variables or a problem in the ADO.Stream object.
When trying to look at the security images file directly I did keep
getting a , file could not be opened errror, as well as an error from
your site saying 'service unavailable' for the web server itself.
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theSCIENTIST
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Posted: 31 October 2004 at 8:31am |
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I don't think the security images are the problem, but I guess it's related because I remember when I was having problems, the security images didn't show up all the time, I had to refresh once or twice for them to show, and that problem also went away since I changed application pool, I still think you should ask your host to put your website in a more aggressive application pool, one that recylces more often so resources are released more often.
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Shatz
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Posted: 31 October 2004 at 5:18pm |
Hi All,
Thanks for the responses. theSCIENTIST, your approach is also my approach. :) I took the dog for a longer than usual walk yesterday after I posted here and, as a developer, started thinking what could be going on. I similarly deduced that it had to be something with the manner in which application and/or session variables are being managed because of the way the forums rely on the combination of cookies, application scope and session scope variables.
After returning from the walk with my dog several ounces lighter, I got on Microsoft's website and started investigating any potential differences in IIS on Windows 2003. A few KB articles later, I was thoroughly convinced my reasoning was sound. I started a support case with my hosting provider and asked them to check out the application pool settings on the server my website resides on, and see if it could be optimized to allow proper operation of the forums. I don't have access to Windows 2003, so any settings that could be provided may help me steer them in the right direction and would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks to all of you for your input and time and most of all, thanks to -boRg- for the energies and time put in to the development of such a fine board package that's FREE !! You're much deserving of any compensation or donations you receive, and you'll be receiving mine shortly with many thanks !! I'll post follow-up's as this thing, hopefully, gets wrapped up so there will be complete documentation for this type of problem in the event someone else experiences the same pitfall. Thanks again to all.
Take Care,
Shatz
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