Log on/off questions

Erik Friesen

I notice that when I forget to log off and then hang up (I am on dialup), that when I return to the forums that I am logged in. Does my name show on the bottom the whole time or does the server recognize my ip and relog me in?

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Login status is determined, in part, by a cookie set in your browser, which survives disconnection and reconnection. Logins can also time out on the server after periods of inactivity. But if you access the site again and your cookie is still valid, you get logged in again automatically. (At least I think that's how it works.) If you have more than one computer, you can be logged in with one, but not with the other, even if both are accessing the site simultaneously. It all depends on the cookie in your browser, which can also expire (seemingly at random sometimes).

-Phil

Zoot

PhiPi said...
If you have more than one computer, you can be logged in with one, but not with the other, even if both are accessing the site simultaneously.

Really? I can be logged in on five machines at once here (two Macs in the office, a PC at the dev. station in the office, two PCs back in the shop).

The list of "users on the site" at the bottom is not dependent on login time, but activity (if you put your machine to sleep while logged in, and check the pages from "public" machine, you'll find you are not "online" at the forums).

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Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Zoot,

I didn't say that you couldn't be logged on from more than one computer, only that it's possible to be logged on from one and not the other, since logon is browser cookie-dependent, not IP address-dependent. In fact you could be logged on with one browser and not with another on the same computer. My logon from one computer frequently times out from inactivity (i.e. the cookie expires), even though I remain logged on with another.

In point of fact, the cookie doesn't actually keep you logged on, it only gets you re-logged on automatically after the server logs you off from inactivity, like a hand-stamp when you step outside from a concert. It's this hand-stamp that expires when the cookie expires, not the logon to the server.

-Phil

Post Edited (Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)) : 8/31/2008 2:08:07 AM GMT