vauxhallviva.com

Posted: **Sat Mar 22, 2008 12:45 pm**

I'm having odd things happen such as not being able to open certain threads (DTV, headlamp ring etc.) and not being able to open a new topic on parts wanted but no problem on mechanical. Is this just flaky software or can I do something about this.

Cheers

Posted: **Sat Mar 22, 2008 1:03 pm**

Doubt its flakey software, been up and running a few years now, but maybe worth clearing your cookies and signing back in again, then try again.

Posted: **Mon Mar 24, 2008 6:14 pm**

Hi Paul,

I cleared cookies, history and so on. This has made no difference. I couldn't pm back lisbon_road this morning regarding a part and the other issues are still there.

It isn't a big issue just a bit odd, I'm sure other posters must have experienced this? I'm running XP SP2 and AOL 9.0

cheers

Posted: **Mon Mar 24, 2008 6:39 pm**

EEEK AOL says it all...

phpBB2 uses sessions to keep track of users as they browse the board. These sessions use a combination of a unique session id and the users IP to identify each user. The forum makes use of the IP as an extra safe-guard to help prevent sessions being hijacked (by discovering the unique session id).

Unfortunately this only works when the users IP is constant as they browse the board.

For most users this will be the case. However AOL route their users via a cluster of proxys and this results in different IPs being forwarded as the user moves between pages. AOL uses IPs which can vary so much that errors will occur.

In a word your ISP sucks, a few others on AOL have the same issue , its live with it or get another ISP in my view, sorry mate.....

Posted: **Mon Mar 24, 2008 6:48 pm**

Tips from other who have seen the same issues with AOL users:

Anther AOL issue has arisen that may or may not affect you. If you are one of the users who seems to be having problems logging off from the forum, it is indeed an AOL issue and not one that can be fixed from this end.

phpBB, which is the coding used for this forum, uses sessions to "track" users as they move between pages, forums, topics, etc. A session is made up of a unique character session_id which identifies the current user. This value is stored in either a temporary (i.e. it's deleted when the browser window is closed) cookie on the users machine or if that doesn't seem to be working it's appended to all URLs.

Problems arise with how some ISPs operate their systems. Instead of forwarding the user's real IP or indeed a different but static IP they simply make available only the IP of the proxy being browsed. The larger ISPs do not use a single proxy or cache, the load upon it and data passing through it would be far too great. Instead they use several systems in a "proxy farm". A user browsing the web may be switched between these machines from one page to another (to help distribute load), with the IP changing as they go.

Obviously a problem then exists in that phpBB's ability to tie a users session to a unique id and an IP fails ... because the IP is constantly changing. There are some "nice" ISPs out there that run these farms within a single "class" or block of IPs.

The problem is that for users whose session is forever being renewed due to their IP changing this extra level of checking can cause issues. For many ISPs the noted changing of 6 to 4 in the IP validation check will be sufficient ... however AOL crops up as the sore thumb.

For security reasons we cannot disable IP validation. So we are forever locked in a struggle with AOL over these issues.

I sincerely recommend that those of you who use AOL decide to use a different browser to access this forum.

A quick fix, but one that will not work for very long, is to clear your cookies and temp internet files. But the best solution is to use a different browser.

In a word, get another browser like Opera and or Mozilla and use that and not the AOL browser... Its a bodge and doesnt get around the way AOL enable you to connetc to the internet, they are well known for doing things weird.

Posted: **Mon Mar 24, 2008 6:54 pm**

Hi Paul,

Ok, I just about follow the technical stuff. I've been thinking of switching for a while and going for a bundle with TV and 'phone so that should sort it when I get that done.

I'll try another browser in the meantime.

Thanks for the help.

Posted: **Tue Mar 25, 2008 1:05 am**

I'm hooked up with A O Hell, but I use Firefox or Opera for my internet surfing.

http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/products/firefox/
http://www.opera.com/

Firefox is my default browser, sometimes Youtube goes a bit slow, that's when I fire up Opera.

I've not suffered any problems on here over the last couple of years, but if you want to do away with that bloody AOL program follow this plan.

First install Firefox and get used to how it operates.
Next, uninstall anything that has AOL or WAOL from your control panel (but leave your modem drivers alone)
Now select in your control panel Network Connections - Create New Connection and follow these setting in the wizard.

<center>

You can choose any name for the new connection, I use this one.

Next, you must fill in your AOL username with the @aol.com at the end like an email.

Tick the box to the connection if you want a desktop shortcut.

</center>

Your CPU will thank you for this.

Posted: **Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:59 pm**

Thanks for the tips