Ok, so I don't usually think of myself as computer inept, however, I am quite baffled by its current behavior. When attempting to post replies I am often redirected to a log in page, when I have already logged in five or ten minutes before. After an FAQ search I am wondering if this happens because my computer is generally set up to take no cookies? I do not lose my replies every time I am required to relog in but when I do lose the reply it is rather annoying. Do I fix this? How?
If you don't use cookies, the system uses PHP sessions to identify you as you browse through the forums. These sessions expire 30 minutes after you first log in (each day, or more properly, each session), requiring you to relogin after a half hour. If you happen to be replying to a message during this time, it will prevent you from posting the message until you relogin. Workaround if you don't want to use cookies is to compose in an outside text editor, then cut-and-paste after ensuring you are still logged in. If you generally don't want to use cookies, but are willing to accept them from this site only, you can allow cookies on a site-by-site basis in the options for either Internet Explorer or Mozilla / Firefox.
And regarding the five or ten minutes behaviour, I've no idea. Are you using multiple tabs, multiple windows or multiple browsers? Or is your firewall on the highest security setting? Do you have problems on other forum sites? Do you use anonymizing web services?
Daniel- Thanks for your helpful comments. If what you listed in your second post are all possible reasons for my problems. I could be suffering from a combination of the 30 min sessions, multiple windows, and possibly firewall. My husband does most of the behind the scene settings, he does not think firewall is my problem. I occasionally will have two windows open at once so while photos are loading I can read something else. Combine that with today’s observation- while reading an interesting thread time seems to fly. I could simply be running out of time faster than thought. I cannot say whether this is usual or unusual for online forums as your is the first to which I’ve become “hooked”. By the way I think I love cut and paste. Thanks again kirsten