There was a problem authenticating your post information PT2

Dogen

Hi There,

I've just recently download and installed Vanilla 1.1.2 Installation was a breeze, I can log in without a problem, the program looks great and I'm excited about getting it up and running!

However, as soon as I actually try to achieve anything within Vanilla (ie. start a new discussion, change settings, approve a new user) the following message is displayed - There was a problem authenticating your post information.

Now I've done a couple of searches and found this thread:

Problem after Updating 1.1.1 # 8 There are a couple of other threads that discuss the issue. I understand it is an added bug... I mean function (jokes).

My question is this - how do I get this function to not cause errors on my system?! There is mention of it being an issue with PHP Sessions, but I'm not exactly sure what the issue is. I'm happy to seek help in a PHP dedicated forum as suggested here Problem after Updating 1.1.1 # 16 But I really don't know what to ask for!

My only other thought is, perhaps I could install an older version of Vanilla, before the session variable postbackkey authentication was added.. how far back would I have to go? I tried 1.1.1 and got the same problem.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers, Dogen

Dogen

PS. I should mention I have verified it is definitely a session issue by doing the "visit count test" suggested here- And sure enough it counts a new visit every time I click on "account"

PPS. Just out of curiosity, is this a common problem faced by many users, or is my hosting managed by hacks who don't have their PHP Session handling set up right? Helps to know if I have to deal with them to fix this ;o)

Mark

I'd say the problem has happened for less than 1% of the people who download and install Vanilla.

The fact that your sessions aren't working, but your remember me cookies *are* working is very strange.

The cookies and session information are saved using the same cookie domain / url. So this is most likely a hosting provider issue.

What you can really do to check it is:

1. Try signing in without checking the "remember me" box and see if you can stay signed in.

If it doesn't keep you signed in, then:

2. Create a test page that simply creates a php session variable. Then create another page that prints that variable to the screen. Use those pages to see if the variables are saved. If they are not, then you definitely have php session creation issues and you can use those pages as an example when explaining the problem to your hosting provider.

Dogen

Thanks for you help. It definitely seems PHP Sessions have not been setup correctly - It maintains the same session id from page to page, but fails to write/keep a session variable. I guess that's what you get when you choose POWWEB, for your hosing - problem after problem! Cheers

Dinoboff

See the page, that explain how to configure your phpsession on POWWEB: http://www.powweb.com/knowledgebase/read_article.bml?kbid=3439

irva

I am also getting this message when attempting to do anything in Vanilla 1.1.2. Its a brand new install and have changed the variables mentioned in the other posts regarding this message (cookie and domain info) with no positive results. Has there been an update to this problem and if so, what is it Thanks.

Dinoboff

If the cookie where a problem, you couldn't log-in in vanilla.

In your case the problem have to be with your php session settings. Is it a local installation? if not, who is your provider? check on its support page how to set correctly php session on your server; ask them to help you with it.

shatterglass

See the page, that explain how to configure your phpsession on POWWEB:

http://www.powweb.com/knowledgebase/read_article.bml?kbid=3439

THANK YOU!

If only I'd read this post two hours ago there'd still be hair on my head.

Thing is, I already had another Vanilla 1.x installation (not yet updated to 1.1.2) running on Powweb that was working just fine, so I couldn't figure out why a nearly identical config file was giving me the "Problem with Authentication" message. AAAARRRRGHHHH!

Thanks for finding this page for me; I checked the Powweb forums but this is what I needed.