Problems with cookies

[Mocker]

Ever since starting experimenting with v8 I've been having problems with cookie errors. First it was just with Firefox, and after 8.0 not even IE would let me add items to my cart or log in or use the search. Stranger yet, I asked a friend to try it out, and it works fine for him, but not for me (not just on my PC at work, but also for my home comp). I suppose it could be a problem with the rather poor hosting service we're using for the test site, though I doubt it (more likely it's because of something I've messed up).

Anyhow, here's the address for the test site:

http://www.prohobby.fi/acatalog/

Sorry, it's in moonspeak (aka Finnish), so I doubt you'll understand it, but "Ostoskori" means Shopping Cart, and "Kassa" or "Kassalle" means Check Out. Many of the buttons are still in English, we've yet to do versions of them in Finnish. Currently I'm still running v8 in trial mode, my employer hasn't yet asked for the retail serial (or just hasn't forwarded it to me), but this shouldn't stop me from testing the site properly (or should it?).

Thanks for any suggestions in advance!

[TraceyG]

Hi,

I have just tested the site and do not get any cookie problems either. Have you checked your security settings in the browser? Have you got a firewall that may be set up to block cookies? You could try setting up a privacy policy (Settings | Business Settings | Terms & Conditions Tab | Privacy Policy tab) to see if that helps.

[Mocker]

I shouldn't have any problems with my browser settings or my firewall. At work I've tried Firefox 1.5 and IE 6 with Norton, and at home I have ubuntu linux with the latest Firefox with quite basic firewall settings. Both work fine on any other pages that require cookies. I've also tried other comps at work, and none work.

As far as I understand, we have a privacy policy set up. (P3P policy: Basic + Customer Accounts). Not that I really understand much about that, my boss is the one who set up most of the business settings.

If it works supposedly all right, though, I'll try some other comps when I get back home. I'd think it would still be a somewhat big issue if even one per cent of customers got a cookie error without having any fault in their settings.

[Mike Hughes]

Sometimes you can get a corrupt cookie / session file. This happens very rarely (It's only happened twice to me during 3-4 years of using actinic) and seems to happen when playing around with things rather than in regular use.

The solution is to go to your cookies and delete the actinic cookie (which will have your website as the owner). Once the cookie has been deleted actinic will create a new one when you next visit and everything should be fine.

Mike

[cbarling]

It might be worth renaming or copying the cookie before deleting it so you could raise a ticket with Actinic support and supply the dodgy cookie (assuming the suggested solution works).

If it's something that happens regularly (even if quite rarely), it would be good to get to the bottom of it and solve it once and for all.

Chris

[RobSollars]

Hauska tavata (at least, I think that's right. My moonspeak's a little rusty),

I tried using the site and also ran into a cookie error whenever I tried to access the cart. I'm running FF on Windows XP Pro and received the error when clicking on the 'ostoskori' link having added something to the cart.

The message I got, which I will now replicate from memory, read:

T?m? ostoskoriohjelmisto tarvitsee luvat k?ytt?? ev?steit?(cookies) pit?m??n kirjaa ostoskorisi sis?ll?st?, nimist? ja osoitteista sek? pit?m??n sinut kirjautuneena sis??n, mutta t?m? on estetty.

T?m? voi johtua useasta asiasta:

- ev?steet saattavat olla estettyj? selaimellasi. Voit mahdollistaa niiden k?yt?n valikoistasi.

- ev?steiden k?ytt? saattaa olla estetty selaimesi tai internetturvallisuusohjelmistosi/palomuurisi toimesta.

Ole hyv? ja paina t?st? palataksesi kauppaan.

Hope that's of some use.

[Mocker]

Hi Rob,

In case you meant to say 'nice to meet you', yes it was correct. And same to you as well.

Well, atleast my suspicions that I'm not the only one having issues with the cookies are confirmed. I also don't think it's an issue of getting a bad cookie by random, because it's happened on several computers, and removing cookies doesn't fix it. Tomorrow I'll try to upload the catalog on a different server in test mode, to see if it's a server side issue - like I said, the current site is on a test server, and not a very good one at that. If I'd want help from them by phone I'd be waiting in a line for hours, or days if I sent them email.

If anyone else has had trouble like this, any other advice would be appreciated, just in case using a better server doesn't solve the problem.

[cdicken]

I got a cookie issue as well, which I think could be due to your network settings.

Could you go into 'Web | Network Setup' and check that you are just using a single domain name in there - and not a mixture of prohobby.fi and prohobby.com. That might just fix it.

[Mocker]

I don't think there's a problem with the network setup, the settings are as suggested by the server's admin - that was three years ago, though.

My network settings exported (well, the relevant parts, atleast):

[EDIT] Removed settings, leaving stuff like that laying around the web can always get unneeded attentention from malicious crackers...

[cdicken]

Hmm - those settings look OK - at least, they are the sort of settings we used to recommend to people with servers that used older Windows platforms. Windows used to have terrible problems with Perl - but these problems are now largely dealt with now. It may be possible that a revised set of network settings will work for you and fix these problems.

I suggest raising a support ticket at http://www.actinic.co.uk/support/register.htm and someone can take a look and see if there are any settings that work better.

Of course, it could be something else causing problems - but this will eliminate one possible cause.

[Mocker]

Update:
Finally got round to uploading the site to another server and this problem is solved (well, not solved, but worked around, atleast). The test catalog is at
http://www.proairsoft.com/acatalog/t...log/index.html
And when one problem is solved... Now when I attempt to check out from the shopping cart, I'm told that I "apparently pressed the back button in my browser window and should press the checkout button (kassa) in the sidebar". Can anyone tell me why? Also, if anyone has trouble seeing the images on the site, please notify me (I can't see any images anywhere on the server with this comp, but on all other comps they work fine, even the ones that are on the same network as this!). Thanks for your time, everyone!

[cdicken]

I think the problem is a little bit of over translation.

You need to change the 'Aloita!' text to 'Start' (without the !). This is Phase: -1, ID: 113 in 'Design | Text'. This should fix it.

[Mocker]

Thank you very much!

Problem solved, expecting next one within the following hour =p.
I do hope the next maintainance release comes out soon... I only have this week completely and next week partially to get v8 up and running, and we stll have some major descisions to make about the implementation. *fingers crossed*