Log-in problem

[dennis_burke]

i was finding my age old link to the General Category forum was not loading, but just now I edited the saved link back to just this below, there had been a string of giberish after it, how ever I managed to save that.

http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/for...neral-Category

Must try some other devices also

[robstitt]

Dennis,

I’ve been finding recently that going into the forum via the Forum level or the General Category level opens normally with me still logged in and with the secure padlock symbol and an ‘https’ address. All good, in other words.

If I click on your provided link I’m still logged in but the connection is flagged as Not Secure as we’d expect with only an ‘http’ address. I don’t know how important being secure is for our purposes.

Robert

[Lyffe]

For some time I've had the same problem as described by Don at #14 (message
"Invalid Redirect URL (http://www.rafcommands.com/)" but discovered that by immediately using my favourites link a second time I entered the forum without difficulty and was always listed as logged in. However, about last Thursday (30th) the problem disappeared and I'm immediately directed to the General Category, so assumed the matter had been dealt with.

I'd not noticed the security issue, but now it's been mentioned I see the General Category is marked as Insecure, but on accessing a thread that is listed as Secure, - on reflection that's always been the case.

Brian

[wwrsimon]

It's been fine for me since the start of this week, I think. No log-in issues.

I re-updated my bookmark to the General Category again and it's behaved itself since.

The padlock before the address bar bit does have "Firefox has blocked parts of this page which are not secure." However, if I click on the link Dennis posted in post #21 above the site is listed as not secure, as reported by Robert in post #22.

I'm on Firefox 111.0.1 on Mac OS 10.14 Mojave.

Regards

Simion

[davew]

I was getting this problem too since a load of updates last week. I tried Simon's fix of renewing my 'favourites' log in, all is well now.

DaveW

[Jagan]

Follow-up question for Jagan: how important is it to be seeing the padlock versus the Not Secure text by the site address when using the forum?

Robert

Sorry I missed this Rob.

The pad lock symbol indicates that all communication between your computer and the site is secure and no one can eavesdrop. For many, this is important. In the context of the website not so much because we don't collect any confidential information.

That being said, keeping the SSL feature enabled is preferable compared to the minor inconvenience of clicking a couple of extra times to find oneself logged in.

[Terry]

I have tried Lyffe's method of entry (#23), and it works. Otherwise I was still logging in twice. Regards, Terry

[dennis_burke]

Corection to my previous message: I have since edited my saved link address to the following and it seems to work fine again (i.e. added s after the http

https://www.rafcommands.com/forum/fo...neral-Category

[Don Clark]

Further to my post #14,

I choose to get here by typing simply
www.rafcommands.com/forum
Then enter my User Name in the login panel, at top right.
On cursoring to the Password field I invariably see the warning msg
"This connection is not secure"
which I ignore, given the only personal id info I've stored here is a "spare" single-purpose email addr which I'm ready to abandon if abused in any way.

On logging in, occasionally - more often at present - then get the msg as noted
"Invalid Redirect URL (http://www.rafcommands.com/)"
on a forum page mostly blank but complete with all the usual headers incl the tabs/links
What's new and
Forum
Simple solution, as you are now indeed logged in: just click on either of these and the forum proper is displayed. No need for any other action.

As to HTTP vs HTTPS and SSL:
The level of security offered by HTTPS and SSL is particularly relevant for sites such as this, where there's a register of members with various levels of personal id recorded, incl a password & often a personal email. Even more important for any site with addnl personal id incl eg payment records...

There are some curious features of web usage and protocols which Jagan as owner and webmaster is better equipped to explain or indeed alter.
Firstly, the HTTP vs HTTPS identifier:

As a generality, I understand that once a site has adopted the HTTPS protocol by buying/installing a SSL certificate, it should not matter if you use
just the HTTP id, as the site settings if correct, will automatically redirect to the site under the HTTPS protocol, that is
https://www.rafcommands.com/forum (with padlock displayed alongside)

In the case of using the URLs
www.rafcommands.com and
www.rafcommands.com/forum
Initially no HTTP or HTTPS id is shown in the URL bar, with a displayed symbol of a struckthrough padlock: a popup on hover advises
"Site is not secure"
Every forum/subforum title is preceded by another form of padlock, which appears to incl an option to update that forums posts as "Read"
In any event, at this point before login, there is no personal info to sniff/eavesdrop/snoop.

Once login complete, the displayed URL becomes
https://www.rafcommands.com/forum/forum.php
as expected (and most welcome, given your own and others personal info (email eg) can now readily be displayed).
At this point the individual forum icons have now become balloons, again with the invitation to double-click to mark as read.

Lastly re the URL prefix
www in www.rafcommands.com/forum
whether one uses this or omits it for simply
rafcommands.com/forum
seems not to matter for getting here...though I gather it can make some difference on search or display in some cases. NO idea what or why.
Certainly, if typing links in writing posts here, for link to be clickable the full form (incl www) is needed.

Simple summary
whether you type or bookmark/favourite/link to get to
www.rafcommands.com/forum
does not matter.
Adding http or https should not matter.
"Invalid redirect" on login very simply dismissed by clicking either "What's new" or "Forum".

Lastly
Whether Jagan with webmaster hat can find time - or needs to - to fix any of these oddities, from what I see, they are all of little or no concern.
I do keep a website myself, with a bare minimum of HTML etc expertise.
So the above remarks, as ever, open to amplification, correction or query as needed.

[Resmoroh]

Hello All,
Had a system crash (not unusual with my ancient equipment!!!).
Rebooted. Was able to log-in to rafcommands at first go!!
Tomorrow morning will show if recovery is permanent.
Peter Davies