Login Problems

[PYoungbaer]

Hey, web people. When I went to log in, I got a note that said I had exceeded by quota of log in attempts, and the page made me type in a bunch of characters as a security function. What the heck? I do log in frequently to check and post on WNS issues, but I'm hoping I don't have to do this extra step every time. What gives?

[NZcaver]

I had the same thing happen yesterday while I was logging into the forum administrator area. Hopefully it's just a one-off glitch. I'll let David know.

[PYoungbaer]

It happened on both my home and work computers, so it's not machine-specific. But maybe, NZ, we've just said enough?

[NZcaver]

What you mean "we" Kimosabe?

Sorry, the forum is now full. Please turn off your computer, and get on with your life.

[PYoungbaer]

What you mean "we" Kimosabe?

Hmmm, let's see NZ=4517 posts; PYoungbaer=724. I rest my case

[NZcaver]

Yes, my point exactly.

Hope you and the family have a good New Year.

[wyandottecaver]

yea its doing it to me too. the bad thing is even though i correctly type my name and captcha in, it usually takes 2 attempts. good grief.

[Phil Winkler]

Not sure where the setting is/was, but using Firefox I stay logged in all the time. So when I open cavechat I'm there without doing anything. I suspect if I deleted my cookies I'd have to start over.

[David Grimes]

I am looking into the problem. Unfortunately the forum does not keep track of regular user log in attempts but as for NZ the forum says you entered the wrong username and/or password twice that is why you received the message. It could have been a random failed hacking attempt (funny enough the unused admin account gets these all the time) more than likely someone has tried to figure out your passwords and has tried to log in too many times. No harm was done since they obviously didn't figure them out. I can't guarantee this is the issue but it is most likely the culprit. Keep me updated on any future issues.

[PYoungbaer]

The Login issue has returned. Same message: I've exceeded my login quota; please type in the characters below. That worked, but it's a drag.

[David Grimes]

I had the same problem the other day for the first time. I am not sure if it is a bug with the forum software or what but hopefully it will not be too much of a problem. I have to do an update on the forum soon hopefully that will fix the issue. I will be doing this update in the next few weeks.

[wyandottecaver]

got the same problem again too

[David Grimes]

I know it is really annoying. I plan to do the update when I get back next week from vacation. Hopefully I will have the updated files ready for upload by the end of next week then I plan to do the update probably the Sunday after next on 01/23. If this is a bug the issue should get resolved in the update.

EDIT: After researching the issue it seems many phpbb forums are experiencing this same problem. The folks at the PHPBB community forum are blaming it on widespread hacking attempts targeting large and/or popular forums. It seems to me if these are hackers they are not very good at what they do since no one on the community forum reported being successfully hacked. I still lean toward a software bug but who really knows so my best suggestion is to make sure you have a strong password.

[Phil Winkler]

Dave, there are some weird things going on with our internet infrastructure: friends have been getting emails from 6 months ago; I got 4 voice mails on my cell phone from earlier this summer (one was telling me he was sailing into Annapolis harbor and could I call him for a location of a mechanic!). It seems sort of a like a Y2K problem where providers/programmers aren't handling a year change very well.

[paul]

The same problem is happening on the UKCaving.com forum. Accoridng to an Admin, the logs show attacks on user logons using guessed passwords and exceeding the maximum number of failed attempts.