Cookie Problem

[RKBA]

I'm not sure whether this is the appropriate forum in which to post this problem - if not, my apologies and I will repost in whatever forum is appropriate; however, since the problem is unique to this particular PC Guide discussion board I thought this would probably be an appropriate place to post the problem. I have never had this problem with any other forum or web site that I visit (and I visit quite a few).

The problem is that I cannot seem to get this board to recognize a cookie that's been deposited on my computer when I'm running Windows2000 with Internet Explorer versions 5.0 or 6.0. It deposits a cookie and retrieves it just fine if I'm using Netscape 4.7 with Win2K, or if I boot into Windows98 and use either Internet Explorer version 5.0 (haven't tried Win98 w/IE6.0) or Netscape 4.7. The problem only occurs with the combination of Win2K and IE5 or IE6, which is unfortunately what I normally prefer to use. I uninstalled IE6 and reverted back to IE5 partially because I was hoping it might solve the problem with this forum, and partially because IE6 seems to have a problem executing certain Javascripts (even though they're enabled in my security settings).

I do have cookies enabled in my security settings (both per session cookies and permanent cookies), and have my preferences here set to "Store Username & Password in browser memory for 1 year" = Yes. Am I the only one having this problem here? Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I might do to remedy the problem or even to further isolate the cause? Does the PC Guide Discussion forum use some unusual method of storing cookies on the users computer?

I have also completely deleted all cookies from my computer including the cookie cache, history files, and all temporary internet files, and then tried again. It didn't help. You can see the history of my trials (and tribulations http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif) in the Testing Forum.

There seem to be two cookies deposited when I post here, neither of which mentions anything about "PC Guide". I'm not sure which (or both) of these are from here, but one of them mentions "secure.webconnect.net/cgi-bin/" and the first line of the other one contains "ANON_ID" and mentions "tribalfusion.com/" (I won't post the whole "cookie" because I assume my User ID and Password are encoded into them. The problem seems to be one of retrieval as far as I can tell. Any ideas?

Thank you,

-- Ron

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Centerfire (http://home.pacbell.net/rsdotson/) ‘‘The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.’’ -- Thomas Jefferson

[YODA74]

cookies here I think are tribal fusion and double click??not really sure about it.there has to be a setting in 2000 some where that is not allowing cookies seems 98 allowes.Never run 2000 so I'm not sure. some one will know

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Death has come to our windows.

-- Jeremiah 9:21
(undoubtedly a Biblical reference to a Microsoft product!)

[kayofcircles]

RKBA: Nevermind the question I just posted on your Test thread. What you're saying is that you are not being recognized..ie, when you go to post, you have to re-enter your name and that ridiculous password? (Don't know about yours, but mine is numbers and letters that I will never remember on my own..have it written down for those occasions after I have deleted all cookies.) If you've tried both IE 5 and 6 with 2000, I think Yoda's right...setting somewhere in 2000 causing the problem.

[kayofcircles]

Did a Google search, and there was a post on a message board about this same problem, but unfortunately (unlike here!), no one ever replied. Didn't find anything really, but..
MSKB article on setting Cookie stuff (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q196955)
2000 cookie control software (http://www.ntware.com/workstation/cookie_control.html)
Security stuff in 2000 (http://www.ntsecurity.net/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=16301)..might want to take article with grain of salt because written way back in 2000, and pretty sure things have changed since then.

There is a online course where question was asked about not being able to view course material in 2000, and solution posted was:
"When attempting to view the course material while using the Windows 2000 Operating System, it is important to have the following updates installed:

Windows 2000 Service Pack 1
Internet Explorer 5.5 Service Pack 1
Windows Media Player 7

You can obtain these updates by launching your browser and then clicking TOOLS on the browser’s toolbar and then selecting WINDOWS UPDATE"

Found something intriguing that I didn't know for those of us still using 98 though. Importing and Exporting Cookies (http://www.windows-help.net/windows98/ie50-06.shtml). When I do get in a frenzy to clean out all the cookies..could go those places that I want cookies from, like here and Hotmail, Export those cookies onto a floppy or something, and then whenever want to delete all cookies, could Import those back and not have to re-enter names and passwords. Not sure if that will work, but gonna give it a try. (And, yes, I know there are cookie manager programs, but have few resources and don't really want another app running in background.)

[Paul Komski]

Sorry but don't know about Win2000 and cookies but Kay you can change your password to one you like and/or remember - it was almost the first thing I did after registering! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/redface.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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Take nice care of yourselves - Paul
Soup du jour: "I'm on two diets coz you don't get enough to eat on one." (anon)

[rond36]

I have found that after I toss my cookies I have to post a message than go to preferences and tell it to remember my pass word again. I think it is a special cookie only deposited when you tell it to remember your pass word.

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I think Windows XP and Microsoft use more of my bandwidth than I do!
WindowsBBS.com (http://www.WindowsBBS.com/index.php?referrerid=115) Is back online, check it out

[Paul Komski]

You are spot on rond36 I set the "view cookie" option in Opera and after deleting cookies went about resetting my PCG cookies for a yr. It was only when I posted a "New Post" that it showed me the cookie saving the user-name/password. I had tried the "Track Topic" prior to "New Post" and that didn't bring up the cookie to view. Now all's working fine. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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Take nice care of yourselves - Paul
Soup du jour: "I'm on two diets coz you don't get enough to eat on one." (anon)

[RKBA]

First, I'd like to thank everyone for their suggestions and help. Unfortunately, nothing thus far has resolved the problem. According to "WEB Browser Information (http://www.stardust-corp.com/browser.html)", my browser (IE5) accepts cookies just fine when I'm running Win2K and as I've mentioned before, this PC Guide forum is the only web site I've ever had cookie problems with.

I did some hunting around for an answer, and found some clues, but nothing definite. The problem described below by "Wilbur" isn't really applicable, because the domain name PC Guide deposits as part of its cookies is in fact lower case (ie; www.pcguide.com/cgi-bin/ (http://www.pcguide.com/cgi-bin/) and tribalfusion.com/), although it doesn't deposit a cookie when I'm running Win2K at all (but it does with Win98 and WinXP).

The most likely suspect appears to be some quirk in Win2K combined with a bug in Microsoft's Internet Information Server software that Microsoft acknowledges as such, and is also described below - see BUG: Set-Cookie Is Ignored in CGI When Combined With Location (Q176113) (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q176113), but I have no idea whether PC Guide is running Microsoft IIS server software or not, or if so what version.

I'd be very interested to know if anyone else (besides myself and kayofcircles) using Windows NT versions 4.0, or 5.0 (aka Win2000) and Internet Explorer have this same problem (WinNT v5.1 being WinXP). Upgrading to SP2 might solve my problem (I only have SP1 installed), but for whatever reason it kills the "SSH Communications Security (http://www.ssh.com/)" software I need to work from home occasionally, so I'm not going to do that until a version of SSH comes out that works with SP2.

Anyhow, during my travels I ran across some interesting info about cookies and the various ways they're deposited/retrieved. Here are a couple of links that might of general interest to some of you:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/networking/wininet/overview/http_cookies.asp
http://www.zdnet.com/devhead/stories/articles/0,4413,1600618,00.html

-- Ron


P.S.

Kay, I think maybe I'll try installing IE5.5, but I'll never install Windows Media Player 7 because it disables the Direct-CD software for my CD-RW drive. I unknowingly installed it once, and it was a nightmare trying to extricate all of it from my system! By the way, you don't really need to export/import IE cookies to save them, just copy your Windows "Cookies" folder to wherever you want it. When you "export" them all into a single file however, they do take up much less disk space that way, and can be used by Netscape as well.

rond36, Yes I've tried just what you suggested (several times in fact), but it doesn't work in Windows2000 for me (it only works in Win98 and WinXP). I can open a window into my cookie folder, and as I visit various sites with my browser I can watch cookies get deposited into the cookie folder from everywhere except the PC Guide forum (no matter what I try here). http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif


======== below are a couple of potential problems I ran across ========

Cookie problem with IE5 and Windows 2000 (http://www-old.ics.uci.edu/pub/ietf/http/hypermail/2000/0126.html)
Wilbur Streett (WStreett@mail.monmouth.com)
Thu, 18 May 2000 10:34:39 -0400

Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
Next message: Anupama Devi: "HTTP_REFERER"
Previous message: Matthew Delco: "Re: persistent conncetion HOL blocking"


I created CGI applications a few years ago and set up a state management
system using Cookies. The application platform worked with all of the
different browsers, so long as they supported cookes. I created the cookie
headers specifically in agreement with the Netscape specification,
including putting spaces between the variables since it makes them easier
to read.

For some reason, with IE5 and Windows 2000, the cookies no longer work. I
wrote software into the CGI to verify that the cookies were there, since
the design of the web site requires having some sort of state information
about the user. Digging around on the internet via the search engines, I
see that other people are finding the same cookie problem, but I haven't
seen anyone specifically figure out what the cause of the problem is or a
generic solution.

Checking Microsoft's web pages, their own cookie tools do not put spaces
after the set-cookie: header, so I rewrote everything to remove all spaces
between variables in the cookie header, and yet the problem still persists.

I have statements that the IE5/W2K platform is working with Amazon.com's
cookies on the same machine, but not with mine. I could probably compare
the cookies and reverse engine this particular foible of IE5 with W2K, but
I'd rather not. So I guess that Microsoft tested a few web sites and made
their cookie handler work with them, but didn't write a generic handler.

Anyone else run into these problems? Anyone have a solution? I can
provide source if anyone is interested.

Wilbur


------------------------------------------------------

At 10:34 AM 5/18/00 -0400, you wrote: (http://www-old.ics.uci.edu/pub/ietf/http/hypermail/2000/0129.html)
<snip>

I found the problem. IE5 requires LOWER CASE domain names in the
Set-Cookie: header or the cookies do not get set at all.

I don't think that I'll say anything more.

Wilbur

================================================== ====

BUG: Set-Cookie Is Ignored in CGI When Combined With Location (Q176113) (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q176113)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Internet Information Server versions 3.0 , 4.0 , 5.0

SYMPTOMS
When a CGI application sends a Set-Cookie header with "302 Object Moved" response and Location header, Internet Information Server (IIS) ignores the cookie header.

RESOLUTION
This behavior is in violation of the CGI specification, which states, "Any headers that are not server directives are sent directly back to the client. Currently, this specification defines three server directives..."

As a workaround, make sure the file name of the EXE begins with "nph-" and manually create all HTTP headers in your program. "nph-" indicates to the server that the CGI program is to be run in non-parsed headers mode. CGI has two modes. In normal mode (parsed headers), you must send one of the CGI directives to standard output (Content-type, Location, or Status). CGI formats a valid HTTP response line based on the directive you sent. It formats other standard HTTP headers for you, and it should include any other headers that you have specified.

The other mode is non-parsed header mode. In this mode CGI does not set any headers itself. The CGI program must format a full HTTP response including the response line and all headers. The server will not add or modify any headers for you in this mode.

The convention is that a CGI program whose name begins with "nph-" is run in non-parsed header mode; otherwise, CGI programs are run in parsed header mode.

STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior
Compile this CGI program as a Win32 Console Application and place it in a folder on your IIS server where it can be executed:

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
printf("Location: %s\r\n", "http://www.yahoo.com");
printf("Set-Cookie: Name1=Value1; path=/;
expires=Fri, 22 May 1998 21:00:00 GMT\r\n\r\n");
return 0;
}

Call the CGI program from your browser and observe its output (via Network Monitor, for example). It will be similar to this:

HTTP/1.0 302 Object moved
Location: http://www.yahoo.com
Server: Microsoft-IIS/2.0
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 145

<head><title>Document moved</title></head>
<body><h1>Object Moved</h1>This document may be found
<a href="/default.aspx?scid=http://www.yahoo.com">here</a></body>

Note that the Set-Cookie header has not been sent by IIS. If you have cookie warnings turned on in your browser, no warning appears.

To allow a cookie to be set in a 302 response, use code similar to the following, and prefix "nph-" to the name of the executable file:

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
printf("HTTP/1.0 302 Redirect\r\n");
printf("Location: %s\r\n", "http://www.yahoo.com");
printf("Set-Cookie: Name=Value; path=/; expires=Fri, 22 May 1998 21:00:00
GMT\r\n\r\n");
return 0;
}

The output is similar to the following. Note that the cookie is now sent, and no headers are added by the server.

HTTP/1.0 302 Redirect
Location: http://www.yahoo.com
Set-Cookie: Name=Value; path=/; expires=Fri, 22 May 1998 21:00:00 GMT

REFERENCES
(c) Microsoft Corporation 1997, All Rights Reserved. Contributions by Leon Braginski, Microsoft Corporation

[This message has been edited by RKBA (edited 02-16-2002).]

[sea69]

very informative...

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif



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sea1_69@hotmail.com

homepage (http://www.seanweb1.homestead.com/3.html)

[ixl]

RKBA, I have read through this thread and am sensitive to the issue you are presenting. You are obviously quite knowledgeable and if there is a problem with the site I want to know about it, and if possible, fix it.

With respect to this particular cookie issue, my problem in all honesty is that I don't really understand what is causing the issue. The code that handles the cookies is "stock" UBB. Unless it is a bug of some sort in their main code, I don't know what would cause this to happen. I would have thought that if there was a bug it would be affecting hundreds of users here and I haven't heard about this before this thread. I'm not denying that an issue exist, just saying that I don't have much to go on in an attempt to fix it.

If you have any further suggestions, I'm all ears.

------------------
Charles M. Kozierok
Webslave, The PC Guide (http://www.PCGuide.com)
Comprehensive PC Reference, Troubleshooting, Optimization and Buyer's Guides...
Note: Please reply to my forum postings here on the forums. Thanks.

[RKBA]

Charles,

Oh I'm sure the problem has something to do with my particular configuration of Windows 2000 rather than PC Guide, particularly since I seem to be the only one with the problem and the problem only occurs when I'm running Win2K. Part of the reason I started this thread in fact, was to find out if any others might also have a similar cookie problem. I thought maybe there were others who just re-enter their user ID and password every time they post as a matter of course without even knowing they shouldn't have to do that. Apparently that's not the case however since no one has said anything about having the same type problem (in this thread at least).

I guess what I'll do next is to try logging on here from my computer at work which also runs Win2K and see if it also has the same problem. If not (and I suspect it will probably work fine), then at least that will confirm that it's some configuration problem with my particular Win2K installation here at home. Also, I'll try visiting some other UBB forums and see if there's any problem with them. Most of the other forums I visit are either Yahoo boards, or use IkonBoard software, or some proprietary version of forum software. I don't know that I have any other UBB forums in my "favorites" list, but I'll see if I can find some other UBB boards. I'll also check the UBB Developers Network (http://www.ubbdev.com/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=32;hardset=;start_point =;DaysPrune=), UBB Central (http://www.ubbcentral.com/), or some of the other support sites and see if I can find any clues as to what might be causing my problem.

It might help some if you could tell me what version of UBB software the PC Guide forum is using(?). I think the latest version is 6.2.1. Also, and I don't want to impose on you, but if it's not too much hassle and isn't too difficult to find, maybe you could post a sample snippet of the UBB Perl code that deposits cookies on users computers here?

Thank you,

-- Ron

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Centerfire (http://home.pacbell.net/rsdotson/) ‘‘The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.’’ -- Thomas Jefferson