Webmail Login Loop

[Fatboy0341]

Hey all...been a while. I'm not sure this is the best place to post this but I'll give it a try.

I've been dealing with this issue for a long ime and it drives me absolutely nuts. First and foremost - I've had it happen with two different providers, so it's not their fault.

When accessing webmail from either Verizon or Optimum Online (currently Optimum Online) from work - I am constantly prompted to login. I'll login and 50% of the time the login screen will pop up again. Sometimes it takes me 7 or 8 tries. Once I get into my mailbox - sometimes clicking on a message will send me back to the login screen. If the message opens, if I click "Reply" - sometimes I'll get kicked back to the login screen. Sometimes I'll actually get the repoly screen or forward screen or whatever to pop up, only to type my reply and click "Send" and end back up at teh login screen. If I go 8 or 9 times and keep looping - I'll delete all my temp files and cookies and I would say maybe 60% of teh time that works but it starts up again after a while.

Now - I have had this happpen on 5 or 6 different PCs and another 2 or 3 laptops from several different networks (not just this one - it happened at my old job as well).

I have tried EVERYTHING and cannot seem to come up with any kind of logical explanation other than either a corporate firewall messes with the way these providers have their webmail authentication set up. The weird thing is that I NEVER have ANY issues with GMail...so something is wacky and I figured I'd throw it out there and see if any of the resident geniuses (and I mean that - some of you people are on a whole nother level) can figure it out.

Let me know what you think and sorry if this is teh wrong place for this post.


"He who laughs last probably made a backup. He who laughs loudest probably hasn't checked his backups in a while."

 

[linney]

Have you tried your E-mail using "Safe Mode with Networking" to see if the interference is caused by something that you are running (perhaps a Virus Scanner) when in Normal Mode, although on different computers, maybe the checking of mail by the scanner is upsetting the ISP Server?

Anything consistent popping up in the various Event Viewers?

What browser are you using, have you tried a different one, or if it's IE7, have you tried it without Add-ons?

This will clean out your Temporary Internet Files folder, and go the extra step of tackling the hidden Index.dat files too.

Safely Delete the Temporary Internet Files

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/delcache.htm

 

[Fatboy0341]

Hi linney - thanks for the response:

I should have mentioned it, but I have used IE6 and 7, Firefox, Safari and Opera - all with the same problem.

I have not tried using safe mode with networking - but I have disabled all AV/spyware/local firewalls and still have the same problem.

No odd entries in Event Viewer either.

Very odd...I think it must have something to do with how enterprise-level firewalls work...just not sure where the issue might be and why ISP's don't just run their webmail like Google does.




"He who laughs last probably made a backup. He who laughs loudest probably hasn't checked his backups in a while."

 

[smah]

Certain webmail & banking systems cause the same thing here. For me, I know exactly what causes it. At our facility, we have 2 internet connections from entirely different ISP's that are load balanced. In my case, the webmail/banking sites that cause problems are doing some sort of session monitoring; so when the balance shifts to the other internet connection, the site sees that the session has changed. This is actually a basic security measure to insure that the communication between client & server hasn't been comprimised. I don't know exactly how this session verification is being done, but if I disable the load balancing & use either one or the other internet connection exclusively, I don't have this problem.

 

[Fatboy0341]

I don't have load-balanced T-1 internet circuits but I do have a Fatpipe box in place that does soem dynamic shuffling of traffic depending on volume. That would make sense I guess - I'll have to look more closely as far as how that "routing" is done.

Thanks for the heads up...sounds like it might be worth looking into.


"He who laughs last probably made a backup. He who laughs loudest probably hasn't checked his backups in a while."

 

[smah]

Here's an off the top of my head list of application software where I encounter this issue:
[ul][li]typo3 Content Managment Software[/li][li]netteller banking applications (the backend that some banks use for online banking)[/li][li]RoundCube webmail interface (open source PHP based)[/li][li]Horde Imp webmail interface (although for some reason, the kickoff frequency seems to be about 1/2 as often as the others, also open source PHP)[/li][li]Netgear's FVS318 V2 router management interface (we have a remote site using one of these)[/li][/ul]I know there are some others, but I can't think of them at the moment.

 

[Fatboy0341]

Much appreciated...I'll keep you posted.


"He who laughs last probably made a backup. He who laughs loudest probably hasn't checked his backups in a while."