Posting URLs

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Illusion
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Posting URLs

Post by Illusion » Mon Jan 30, 2012 2:35 am

There's a major issue with posting links, it only really becomes a problem when linking to an area which isn't public however.

Consider posting a link to

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http://night-ops.net/forum/posting.php?mode=quote&f=5&p=7559&sid=a6cf670a7bd038e52bf1a9ce87d367cb
Most of us would simply copy and paste the link and end up with..

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http://night-ops.net/forum/posting.php?mode=quote&f=5&p=7559&sid=[31charSessionID]
Which when someone else clicks goes wrong, because the session ID is passed as in the URL as a variable, the session ID doesn't match anyones (apart from the posters specific session, which changes with each log on) and the forum appears to be relying upon the URL for authentication. :!:

If anyone doesn't have these issues, perhaps they could post there browser and OS? I noticed Xanatos had a link like it, other people have mentioned it in chat, and I've had it on Windows XP and Windows 7 with Chrome, will try on Fedora in the morning.

Work-around
When posting links ensure to remove the SID variable at the end of the URL. If clicking a link and it doesn't work, try copying and pasting YOUR SID from another tab/window.

If that fails, take out the forum variable and the post variable (f and p) and edit them into the URL of the current thread before loading that URL.

For example:

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Current URL - 
http://night-ops.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&p=7559&sid=[YOURSessionID]

Desired URL - 
http://night-ops.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1014&sid=[SomeoneElsesSessionID]

End URL - 
http://night-ops.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1014&sid=[YOURSessionID]
(Note, Do NOT log in again as it will most likely wipe your current SID from the database losing your existing session, and you will be redirected to the forum index - not even gaining access to the thread specified; perhaps something else that needs exploring - logging in wont reffer you to the correct post!)

Administration
Appears to be either incorrect cookie settings or incorrect php settings. (phpBB Support Forum 9 & phpBB Bug Report)
"I'm not worried about this because I am too strong, too good, too intelligent, but I want to say to the others 'don't follow the stupid'."

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Secant
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Re: Posting URLs

Post by Secant » Mon Jan 30, 2012 4:25 am

You're right about the phpBB server settings. It was all set to "no.surgen.org", must have been from waaaay back in the day when we didn't have our own domain name. No wonder phpBB couldn't find the session cookies it was setting! I have made the requisite modifications to the board's config, so cookie-based sessions should work correctly now.

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Illusion
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Posts: 365
Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2009 8:05 pm
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Re: Posting URLs

Post by Illusion » Mon Jan 30, 2012 4:36 am

Secant wrote:You're right about the phpBB server settings. It was all set to "no.surgen.org", must have been from waaaay back in the day when we didn't have our own domain name. No wonder phpBB couldn't find the session cookies it was setting! I have made the requisite modifications to the board's config, so cookie-based sessions should work correctly now.
After logging out and then back-in, I'm not seeing the session ID variable in the URL any more! :D
"I'm not worried about this because I am too strong, too good, too intelligent, but I want to say to the others 'don't follow the stupid'."

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