Banner Manager Logs me Out

Good afternoon.

I am currently using zencart 1.37 and about 50% of the time when i try to add/edit a banner under banner manager i am immediately logged out of the admin section and put back to the initial admin login screen.

any suggestions will be gratefully accepted.

http://www.pcsuperstore.com.au

I should have also mentioned that i am using MySQL 4.1.9-max.

This problem is now affecting a number of menus in the admin section, not just the banner manager.

Frankly it is driving me CRAZY having to log back in every minute or two and re-do whatever changes i was making.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Close all browser sessions ...

Clear your cache and cookies ...

If no one is on your site, I would also empty the following tables in your database:
db_cache
sessions
whos_online

Now try logging in with IE ... does it work?

Next, try logging in with FireFox ... does it work?

Thanks for the reply Ajeh.

I have tried emptying the tables you suggested, cleared cache and cookies, and tried to use the admin section from numerous computers, from numerous IP's on both IE and firefox. The problem still exists unfortunately.

It is so bad now that it has basically crippled me from using the site. To update anything at all I have to have 3-4 attempts at it while being logged out in between each attempt.

Any suggestions greatfully accepted :)

Do you have any firewall software installed?
Any cookie-blockers?
Which browser does this happen with ?
Do the same symptoms occur from another PC at another internet connection?
What are your settings in Admin->Configuration->Sessions ?

When did this start happening?
What changed from before it stopped working properly ?

DrByte:

Do you have any firewall software installed?
Any cookie-blockers?
Which browser does this happen with ?
Do the same symptoms occur from another PC at another internet connection?
What are your settings in Admin->Configuration->Sessions ?

When did this start happening?
What changed from before it stopped working properly ?

No cookie blockers.
IE and firefox.
Any PC, any IP.
Settings in Admin->Configuration->Sessions
Session Directory /home/pcsupers/public_html/cache
Cookie Domain True
Force Cookie Use False
Check SSL Session ID False
Check User Agent False
Check IP Address False
Prevent Spider Sessions True
Recreate Session True
IP to Host Conversion Status true

This started happening about a week ago. The only thing i can think that has changed significantly is that we are now using flash banners as well as animated .gif banners. I am using code for the flash banners copied directly from http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Using_Flash

Cheers.

Okay, those are the default Sessions settings, which should work fine.

If I were troubleshooting this directly, this is the approach I'd start with this method, which identifies all customizations made:
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Troubleshoot_-_Diagnosing_Obscure_Issues

From there, undoing smaller individual changes typically eventually isolates the problem and reveals a fix or an incompatibility.

Thanks DrByte.

I ran winmerge and compared my files but did not find any glaring inconsistencies.

We had a problem with our webhost company last week where we could not upload files via FTP. They resolved the problem for us by giving us the direct IP address of the webserver instead of logging in using our hostname.

Is it possible that these problems could be related? If so how would i go about isolating the cause.

Once again, thanks everyone for your patience and helpful advice.

Admin login sessions (and customer login sessions) are managed via the PHP session-handling functionality.
When you log in, a session is generated, and the session's name is zenAdminId or zenid (for the store).
When a session is started, PHP attempts to set a cookie in your browser. That cookie is intended to store that session ID so that it doesn't need to be shown in the browser all the time (ie: with &zenAdminID=243524524524525 etc) at the end of all your URLs.
If a cookie cannot be set, then PHP simply includes the session name and number (like above) on all your URLs in order to keep you logged in.
When you log out, or the session ID is lost, the session data is reset and your authentication data is removed, requiring login again.

Possible causes of session-mgmt problems include:

• cookies are blocked by firewall or by browser configuration
• PHP is misconfigured or has certain session settings set to methods incompatible with Zen Cart such as session-auto-start and transitive-sid etc. The installer warns about these if they are a problem.
• you have your site configured to store session data in files but your filesystem doesn't have permissions set in such a way as to allow storage of the data
• you have your site set to store session data in the database but the database table ("sessions") is corrupt or database-storage is full and new records cannot be added.

1. In your /admin/includes/configure.php, what is your setting for this line:```
   define('[B]STORE_SESSIONS[/B]', 'db');
   // use 'db' for best support, or '' for file-based storage

2. Is the setting the same for your /includes/configure.php file ?

3. Is your "cache" folder set to read/write (ie: chmod 777):> **crankytech:**
>
> Session Directory:  /home/pcsupers/public_html/cache

DrByte:

1. In your /admin/includes/configure.php, what is your setting for this line:```
   define('[B]STORE_SESSIONS[/B]', 'db');
   // use 'db' for best support, or '' for file-based storage

> 
> 3. Is your "cache" folder set to read/write (ie: chmod 777):

Thanks for the very informative and fast reply DrByte.

1. My setting in /admin/includes/configure.php is the same as what you posted.
2. The setting in /includes/configure.php is the same.
3. My cache folder is set to 777.

PHP is configured as follows:
session.auto_start                  Off                                    Off                 
session.use_trans_sid             Off                                    On

Thanks for your patience and help.

Apologies if i am grasping at straws, but i have just noticed in my webhost configuration:

Timeouts Connection: 120 - Keep-Alive: 4

is it possible that when more than 4 people are viewing the site that my session gets dropped? or am i way WAY off target here?

I doubt the timeout is an issue.

What are the rest of your PHP settings for Sessions ? (from the admin php-info you quoted from earlier)

DrByte:

I doubt the timeout is an issue.

What are the rest of your PHP settings for Sessions ? (from the admin php-info you quoted from earlier)

I hope this is the info you are after?

session.auto_startOffOff
session.bug_compat_42OnOn
session.bug_compat_warnOnOn
session.cache_expire180180
session.cache_limiternocachenocache
session.cookie_domainwww.pcsuperstore.com.auno value
session.cookie_lifetime00
session.cookie_path//
session.cookie_secureOffOff
session.entropy_fileno value**no value
session.entropy_length00
session.gc_divisor2100
session.gc_maxlifetime36001440
session.gc_probability10
session.namezenAdminIDPHPSESSID
session.referer_checkno value**no value
session.save_handleruserfiles
session.save_path/home/pcsupers/public_html/cache/home/php/
session.serialize_handlerphpphp
session.use_cookiesOnOn
session.use_only_cookiesOffOff
session.use_trans_sidOffOn

Hmmm ... that looks fine for "local" values, which is the important part.

An alternative approach ... can you install a fresh copy of Zen Cart into another folder+database, and check whether the problem still happens there ?

I had the symptoms you describe happening chronically on one site a couple years ago. It turned out it was my surfing-protection settings in ZoneAlarm ... it was blocking the site's session cookies amongst other things. Turning off that setting in ZoneAlarm resolved the problem instantly. The quick way to find out if it's related is to turn off all personal firewall or privacy-protection software and test.

OK so i re-installed a clean copy of zencart to a test folder on the same webserver, using the same database and i immediately was presented with the same problem.

I assume this means that the problem lies in 1 of 2 areas:

1. either the database is bollocksed.
2. a setting with our webhost is bollocksed.

If i am correct in these assumptions, does anyone have a suggestion on where to go from here? I'm not a crybaby by nature but this problem is now so extreme that i cannot use the admin section at all without feeling the urge to drive my fist through the monitor every 5 seconds as i get logged out!

Once again, thanks to everyone who has offered so much advice.

Cheers!

You could try changing this setting to blank ... just remove the letters: db```
define('STORE_SESSIONS', '');

What version of PHP is on your server?

You might try asking your host what PHP components have been changed on the server since it was last working properly for you.

Who is your host?

Do you have access to another webserver anywhere to use as a test ... to rule out your own equipment?

I removed the letters "db" from both files but the problem still remains.

I have emailed our hosting company with the problem however i am incredibly pessimistic that they will be of any assistance given their track record...

This issue is driving me to drink...