Problem Staying logged In

[The Admiral]

A man of maturity? Bang on, Derek, though 'Old Fart' is perhaps a more accurate description! I don't bang the top though Derek for fear of damaging the cathode ray tube and unseating the valves from their sockets .

Ian

[Stub Mandrel]

On 13/05/2017 at 17:16, The Admiral said:

Previously I accessed SGL through either my PC or my tablet, and once logged in that's the way it stayed. The other day, I also logged in from a laptop, but now find that I only stay logged in on one device at a time. So, if I'm logged in on the PC, I have to log in again on my tablet. Having done that, I then find I need to log in on my PC. It's as if that there is only one token available that has to be passed from one to the other. I've ticked the "stay logged" box on both devices.

That's pretty much normal forum behaviour, only one connection per user so creating a new connection on a different IP address usually disconnects the other.

Ultimately a web server has a finite number of connections so they are managed by limiting to one per user and logging off people who have not been active for along time.

That said, not all forum software behaves like this.

Also how you manage cookies can affect being logged in.

[DRT]

38 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

That's pretty much normal forum behaviour, only one connection per user so creating a new connection on a different IP address usually disconnects the other.

Ultimately a web server has a finite number of connections so they are managed by limiting to one per user and logging off people who have not been active for along time.

I don't think that is the issue. I often jump between two or three devices and never have a problem like the one described by the OP unless my browsers get confused. I don't think this has anything to do with the server end of the site. 

[Stub Mandrel]

You're probably right @DRT Derek. Those are all 'excuses' I have been told for the forum I moderate on, but it's clear some users have a totally different experience to others.

[The Admiral]

11 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

That's pretty much normal forum behaviour, only one connection per user so creating a new connection on a different IP address usually disconnects the other.

If I connect all my devices through a single router, would the IP address change though? I'm thinking not. Also, if I am staying with relatives, I don't recall needing to log in again because of a different IP address.

Ian

[DRT]

I am connected via two devices now through my home router and they have different IP addresses.

[Stub Mandrel]

I'll be honest I'm extrapolating from what I have been told, not first-hand knowledge.

I do wonder if it you get logged off on (e.g.) the desktop if you log on with the laptop --- with the desktop still logged on. that would make sense as most people don't try and access the forum simultaneously from two devices.

[Stub Mandrel]

Just now, DRT said:

I am connected via two devices now through my home router and they have different IP addresses.

Bang goes that theory - unless the different IP is what lets them both be logged on at the same time and it's two devices with the same IP AND switched on together that causes the issue?

[DRT]

I'm not an expert in all of this but I don't actually think web applications create a logged in user session in the same way as say a business application that you would log into across an office network. From memory I think the method used by remote apps is a "stateless" connection where the server end doesn't actually know the user is there apart from the few milliseconds it takes to process each individual transaction. The users credentials are passed into the system with each interaction but the server end session does not remain open once the transaction completes. The logged in status therefore only really exists in your browser.

I might have this completely wrong 

[The Admiral]

Thanks all for your replies, but just to re-state, all is back to normal now, and I've given up trying to fathom how! I realise that I shall never be able to get up to speed with these matters .

It doesn't matter if I'm logged in from several devices at the same time, or separately. I think I understand what you are saying Derek, but the puzzle to me is that if it was just down to the browser, then I'd expect this 'dropping out' would have happened just on one device, not several, especially as one device uses Firefox, and another, Chrome. I therefore have a suspicion that the site must be involved in some way, even if it just comes down to how the cookies affect things.

It's a case of Never Knowingly Understood I'm afraid!

Ian