Authentication issues and other problems using the forum

[Andy]

There are a number of issues I encounter when using the forum, associated with posting, replying and moving around the forum, including authentication errors, difficulty logging out or remaining logged in, etc.
 
I'm mostly using a third gen iPad model number MD328B/A running iOS 9.3.5 accessing via Safari or Chrome. Issues are intermittent, don't always happen all the time, don't always happen when doing the same tasks.


If anyone has similar issues and would like to document what happens and when, maybe providing screenshots where poss, please feel free to reply. 


Alternately if if you have similar issues feel free just to leave a 'me too' message.

[ukbobboy]

@Simon-J @schnapps @Andy

Hi Guys

I've noticed that if I enter the forum from the front/main page and access the post I want to reply to I do not get clobbered with Authentication errors, in fact I tend get as much time as I need to make my post.

However, if I take a shortcut, say either directly from my email's inbox or some other shortened access route, I get swamped by Authentication errors, so much so that I have to give up and start again.

Another bit of the puzzle.

Peace out.

UK Bob

[Simon-J]

Hi @ukbobboy,

Interesting!

Thanks for letting us know! I'll report that now. 

@Andy @schnapps let me know if you find anything similar and  note where you're coming in from if it's not the main page as it could be really useful.

Thanks

Simon

[schnapps]

Hi @Simon-J

For me it doesn't matter if i access the Forum via the main home page or not where i still get the Authentication Errors 

What's more frustrating for me is that after a short period i lose my profile and notification icons on the top right hand of the screen which looks like i have logged out of the forum (which I haven't) and to retrieve my profile / notification icons I have to either post a new message or give somebody a "thanks".

Then if I don't post anything for say over 20 to 30 minutes I get automatically logged out of the forum.

I even bought a new Windows 10 tablet over Christmas with the same annoying results 

[ukbobboy]

@schnapps @Simon-J

Hi Schnapps

Yes, that auto log-out feature can be annoying and, like you, to get back into the forum I have to "thank" someone or press a (or any) "reply" button to re-call the log-in screen to log-in again.

For me, the "auto log-out feature" is more of an annoyance that a real problem.

Peace out.

UK Bob

[Andy]

@schnapps Personally I'm pretty sure it's something to do with the secure socket authentication they are using, and I suspect it will be affecting quite a few different setups but to a greater or lesser degree. Tablets could be a particularly susceptible device given their cut down browser apps and heavily walled operating systems being easier to trip up, which personally I think is why we are seeing it more. Interestingly @caseyb1993 doesn't seem affected at all on an Amazon Fire so maybe Android devices aren't tripping. On Mac OS X safari does still get the issue but much less - if @ukbobboy is using a laptop/desktop I'm thinking he might similarly be seeing the issue much less.

Please don't bother messing around with other devices, I think we've definitely done enough now to prove it happens, it's up to NOW TV now to either take it seriously enough to look into or to dismiss as not worth bothering with - we will just have to live with their decision! (sorry don't sound too optimistic there do I, but to be honest I'm not!)

[ukbobboy]

@Andy @schnapps @SeeMoreDigital

Hi Andy

There has certainly been a lot of activity on this thread.  OK Andy, you asked a few questions, here we go:

1) You asked, "What device and browser you use for the forum?", I used a desktop (tower) PC and my browser main is Opera. I sometimes use my android tablet to read forum posts and do other non-transactional stuff.

2) You also asked, "Which OS do you use?",  sorry Andy, my paranoia has just kicked in.

3) Finally, Could give a rough estimate of how often those errors appear, is it 1 in 2 visits, 1 in 5 visits etc." When the problem first started it occurred several times per visit, depending on how many posts I wanted to reply to make, sometimes I had to give up and not reply at all. However, over time the errors have abated now to about 1 in 4 or 5 visits.  Last time I had this error, a couple of days ago while replying to a post, I was able to copy my reply, refresh the screen and then paste my reply into the now blank screen and finally save it.

You know, I was surprised that my "copy - paste" trick worked because, in the past, when I tried it the error came back and I lost my reply.

Anyway, for me, as said before, the "Authentication" error has lessened but is still around.

Despite my paranoia, I hope this has helped.

UK Bob

[Andy]

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@schnapps wrote:

I have switched the Pop Up Blocker feature off on my Tablet and for the last couple of hours it appears more stable whilst on the NowTV Forum (haven't had any authentication errors so far and the only thing that i have noticed is that i am still getting logged out of my account but less frequently than before).

---

@schnapps

Yes I get the same thing, sometimes you can get by for a while with no errors at all, but false alarm it all kicks off again. In fact that's why I waited a while between saying I'll start this thread and actually starting it ... No sooner did I post I'll get this sorted then everything was working fine for the next load of posts, I thought I'd look a bit daft starting this thread and then not being able to post anything cos it's all working!!

Sometimes the lack of consistency is what it makes it even more frustrating an experience here! 😉

[Anonymous User]

Hi All, 

Simon, the link you sent me (

https://community.nowtv.com/t5/Forum-Info-Off-Topic-Chat/Authentication-issues-and-other-problems-us...), when I click on this URL I get Augentication errors however, when I navigate to the page from the community Home page my access is fine.  

Regarding the automatic logging out - we suspect this is a NOW TV cookie issue.  As the Community isn't strictly a NOW TV page (Community is a 3rd party app) the community pages don't intreract with the Sky Identity application in the same manner as a NOW TV page. 

Therefore once you've signed in to NOW TV and navigate to the community, if there is no activity on the NOW TV pages for >10 min the UMV cookie is expires.  From our side we need to investigate why this would stop us posting to the community.

[Ney]

Some of my posts seem to show that I have posted but then seem to disappear from he thread I have replied to.