Can't Log In

[Paul faplad Finch]

Okay, I have another realy dumb techy question.

I switched on last night and straight away hit problems. Every time I tried to enter a forum it defaulted to the last time I was in it. So some forums took me to yesterday lunchtime, others even further back. Anything posted after that wasn't showing.

I figured that by logging out and logging back in it might reset itself. Was that stupid? I don't have a clue about these things. Anyway, I logged out but when I triwed to log back in I kept getting an error message.Apparently I wasn't allowed to log in and was told to check my cookie settings.

Now my knowledge of cookies amounts to "I've heard the word mentioned" and not much else. I had a quick faff about and pressed a few buttons at random and eventually found something that allowed me to alter cookie settings in the 'internet tools' thing at the tiop of the screen. Nothing I did in there seemed to change the fact that I wasn't allowed to log in, even when I set it to "allow all cookies" which even to my computer illiterate mind seemed like possibly asking for trouble.

Anyway, after about 20 attempts I gave up, put the settings back to how I found them and went to bed. I should say that before I had this problem I didn't even know these settings existed so it's not as if I've changed anything to bring this problem on.

I'm typing this up  in the library now, but I'd quite like to get back on the site at home so if anyone can give me a clue I'd be grateful. And if it's a realy simple thing that a two  year old could handle, feel free to laugh at me. It's the only way I'll learn.

[Emperor]

A cookie is just a small text file that records the last time you looked at something (and other snippets of information), so the forum software knows what you have and haven't read. Unfortunately sometimes the information can get corrupted and the cookies to be removed so they can be reset.

Best bet is to logout then find the cookies. On Windows XP/2000 go:

My Computer >> Documents and Settings >> YOUR NAME >> Cookies

There should be a long list of them, you can delete the lot but that is going to be a pain when you find you have to remember all those passwords on sites and other things. Looking down the list you should spot the cookies from here through the domain name (I can't tell you directly as I have done something odd with mine, I just can't recall what).

For more detailed instructions see:
http://www.milincorporated.com/a_cookies.html

I'd then recommend rebooting the computer (probably not needed but it does guarantee you've killed the session) and when you log back in everything should be fine.

[Paul faplad Finch]

Glad I came back to the library this afternoon now. Wasn't going to bother.

Made a note of all of that and will give it a go when I get home.

Many thanks for the help. I realy must start to get a clue about how these things work for myself but it really is another world to me.

[Paul faplad Finch]

It worked and I'm in. Cheers.

[Emperor]

Good to hear.