login problems

[tōkai devotee]

皆さん、お久しぶり！お元気ですか？
This is just about the first time I'm been able to login to the new site and certainly the first time in a long while. I was so frustrated that I had almost given up. The only reason I can see for being able to login today is that my personal firewall is turned off. This is the only thing that is different about trying today and other times in the past. Can any computer people explain this to me and tell me a solution to my problem? I'm not very computer savvy, so if you could explain it in plain English I'd appreciate it!!

Many thanks!

[Sairana]

It'd help if you actually described what happens when you try to log in.

Error message? Doesn't recognize your user name? You managed to post on the forums, so is your forum login but not the main site login working for you?

[tōkai devotee]

Ok, sorry for the confusion. I could only login today because my firewall was off, otherwise I can't ever login. What happens when I try to login is that I get a message saying that it either doesn't recognize my user name or my password is incorrect. I have made numerous new password requests and each time I have been unable to enter the site or the forums, until today and it only worked coz the firewall happened to be off for another reason. I double checked it. I put it (firewall) back on and was again unable to log in. Now it's off again and I was able to get back in.

[phreadom]

What firewall are you using? This certainly doesn't sound like standard firewall behavior.

Are you in Windows? Mac? Linux?

It sounds like it's blocking a cookie or something. That's not just a firewall per se, that's a "security" system getting overzealous.

[tōkai devotee]

Hi phreadom, Thanks for your reply!
I'm on Windows, and using CA personal firewall, as in CA Internet Security suite.

Now that I successfully logged in the other day, I am ok with the main site. I was automatically logged in when I came to the site today, I can Shout and all that, but had to switch off the firewall again in order to log in to the forums and reply to your message.

Does this give you any more clues as to what's going on?

[phreadom]

Hi phreadom, Thanks for your reply!
I'm on Windows, and using CA personal firewall, as in CA Internet Security suite.

Now that I successfully logged in the other day, I am ok with the main site. I was automatically logged in when I came to the site today, I can Shout and all that, but had to switch off the firewall again in order to log in to the forums and reply to your message.

Does this give you any more clues as to what's going on?

It looks like your firewall is indeed blocking the cookies necessary for logging into this site and sharing that login information between the main part of the site and forum etc.

Please read the following and see if it helps?

Attention CA users:

By default, CA Personal Firewall, of the CA Internet Security Software Suite, is configured to block all non-session cookies. Cookies are required by the website to function properly. If you have CA Personal Firewall running and are experiencing difficulty using the website, perform the following steps:

1. Locate the CA Security software running in your task tray, right-click and choose 'Open Firewall Settings'
2. In the CA Personal Firewall Settings window that comes up, click 'Privacy Settings' located on the left of the window.
3. In 'Privacy Settings', locate the 'Cookies Protection Level' option. Turn this from High to Medium.
4. Exit out of the CA Personal Firewall Settings window. Return to your browser and try again. You should successfully be able to use the website.

Good luck. Please let us know if this fixes the problem?

[tōkai devotee]

Ok, thanks phreadom, I'll give that a try. It may fix up the problems my kids have when playing some online games too They'll be happy about that!

[phreadom]

Ok, thanks phreadom, I'll give that a try. It may fix up the problems my kids have when playing some online games too They'll be happy about that!

If they're having problems with on-line games, I would guess that that is from certain ports being blocked... usually a game will have a port that it needs to have specifically opened in your firewall to enable on-line game playing.

The on-line game problem (if you're talking about regular games and not something in the web browser) is another matter completely from the cookies problem.

For instance if you're having trouble with a particular game, try going to their website and looking for a support section and search for information about what ports to open in your firewall. Hope this helps.

This link should give you an idea what I'm talking about... for you it's a firewall program, not a router... but same principle. Your firewall is blocking all ports by default and only allowing those you specifically open. The problem with those games is that those particular ports aren't open, so they can't communicate with the other people on the internet.
http://www.homenethelp.com/web/howto/ga ... router.asp

[tōkai devotee]

Hey, thanks again, phreadom. The problems seem to be fixed.
But, now when I come to TJP, my username appears twice or 3 times in the list of users online. That's got me puzzled!! However, it's not a major problem, just weird.