Member Cannot Log-In: Pass Fails (Cannot Accept Cookies)?

[John T Davis]

Hello,

I've got a single user on our forum that cannot log in from his work computer. I've reset his password and verified it works by using it to log in to his account myself (and then telling him to change it again), but he can't get in. He gets an "incorrect user/password" error.

I'm pretty certain this is something on his end, so I asked him for more details. Turns out he's on a work computer that cannot accept cookies at all.

I don't know the plumbing of IPS4 that well yet, but I could imagine that this could easily kill the log in authentication system. Is that possibly what's going on? Is there anything I can do about it, or will he need to use a different machine?

Thanks!

[bfarber]

Cookies are required to login (and, essentially, to use the internet in general these days). There is nothing you can do to fix this for the user.

[John T Davis]

6 hours ago, bfarber said:

Cookies are required to login (and, essentially, to use the internet in general these days). There is nothing you can do to fix this for the user.

@bfarber,

Thank you for confirming that. I sort of suspected that was the case. Would a complete lack of cookie functionality result to in an "invalid user/pass" error, or something else? I ended up resetting his password 3 times before he mentioned that he couldn't use cookies and I began to suspect that was the real issue.

Member wants to access but work, but work requires ALL cookies be disabled. I'm used to more modern security policies that just block 3rd party ad cookies and FB tracking and such. It never occurred to me that this might be an issue.

I've asked him to test login from home. If that works, it should confirm that it's the workplace security policy.

[John T Davis]

On 6/28/2018 at 9:16 AM, bfarber said:

Cookies are required to login (and, essentially, to use the internet in general these days). There is nothing you can do to fix this for the user.

@bfarber,

Quick followup to this: he tried it from home and it didn't work, either. Turns out all his computers--home, work, phone--have to comply with the workplace security policy.

Thanks for your help with this.

[Xenboy]

Then he’s out of luck. Or he gets a tablet or phone or a sets up a VM that will allow him to accept cookies. I’ve got to say, this is a really odd restriction. Half of the Internet won’t work without cookies. ?

I hope he gets compensated well for this intrusion into his personal life.