Why Do I keep Getting Forcefully Logged Out?

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shanelapan posted on Mon, Mar 24 2008 7:45 PM

 This is driving me crazy.  I am trying to set up my website, and it keeps kicking me out.  I go through, write all this copy, then click "save" and it brings me to the sign in screen.  Please tell me how to make this stop.  I have wasted hours re-doing things.  HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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CS Developers

You more than likely need to add a machineKey setting to the web.config, as afscrombe mentioned.  If no machineKey is set at the server level, ASP.NET will periodically generate a new random one.  The authentication cookie is encrypted against it, so when the machine key changes, it invalidates all existing login cookies.

CS used to have one set by default, but that rose a security concern that people weren't changing it, so it could prove a potential vulnerability where someone could fake a cookie and then log in as someone on a site.  Now, CS doesn't specify one by default, though some of the installers will auto-generate one, so it just depends on how you installed it.  IE, if you created the DB manually, no installer was ever run to add one, or if you did an upgrade, you likely had updated the web.config file, so the one that was generated is no longer in there.

In the end, adding one will resolve it.

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That was actually what I suggested.  I suggested it be generated instead of in documentation.  It got a no.

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Ken Robertson:
I know.  I made my case to Scott and he said no.  I don't think he agrees that it is an issue.

In the long run it always comes down to money.  How much does a support call, or managing support threads, cost you?  I think that Rob would be more interested in that.

It's all in the spin...  Stick out tongue

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Mmm, I don't think it has anything to do with money.  Just said no to auto generating machine keys.  Wouldn't read much else into it than that.

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Alex Crome replied on Fri, Mar 28 2008 12:16 PM

I don't think Bill was saying anything about Scott saying no because of money, I think he was giving you another argument to use to persuade Scott.

Anyway, if you can't autogenerate the machine keys, then you do think that generating a machine key ought to be added to installation instructions in the documentation(http://docs.communityserver.org/wiki/page.aspx/8/installing-community-server/

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