Website's User Inactivity Timeout?

[Telly]

How long is the timeout? I am a slow typer, and if I compose some multi-dimensional topic, sometimes when I go to post it, I find I have been logged out. If I back-up, copy the text to Word, and save it, I can re-log in, no evidence of me every being there, and post it again. So if I keep my head, I DO have a work-around.

But it would be nice to know the "inactivity" duration before automatic log-out.

 

[ERD50]

I'm not aware of any timeouts, and I didn't see any setting in the profile page. Hopefully an admin can come along and confirm this or set me straight.

I routinely do a CNTRL-C on longer posts as I type, and before I hit send, just in case there is a glitch. It's in my copy buffer, so less work than actually copy/paste to another document, though I have done that if I have a lot of details I've worked on.

It helps that I use an app (ClipIt for Linux, there are similar ones for MacOS, and I assume for Windows) that keeps a buffer of the last 20 copy items, and I can pick any of them, plus a few static ones that I use regularly.

-ERD50

 

[sengsational]

This board's value to me has a lot to do with well though-out, well-researched, well-written posts. Although an increase in the timeout policy is possible (typically that value is set at the web server), that would consume more resources. An alternative would be to have a javascript that pops-up and asks if you're still there. It's possible that this feature is available in the forum software and it's just not enabled?

 

[Walt34]

To my knowledge there is no timeout. I've left the system here logged in for over an hour without touching the keyboard to no ill effect. I'll ask one of the admins anyway.

 

[Walt34]

I asked the other mods and an admin and no one has ever heard of the system timing anyone out intentionally.

 

[ERD50]

I asked the other mods and an admin and no one has ever heard of the system timing anyone out intentionally.

That's what I thought. I keep pages open for days, maybe weeks sometimes, and they don't timeout, and I didn't see any setting for that anywhere, and don't recall changing it (if it was hiding from me somewhere now).

On a couple rare occasions, I've got a message that I can't submit/preview because I've logged in since this window has been opened - something like that? It seems to go in circles. I don't recall what it took to break out of that loop, maybe a restart of the browser. But that was just as likely to be on my end as on the forum end. But rare.

OP will need to look into things from their side - which browser, maybe sleep settings, etc?

-ERD50

 

[MRG]

Sleep settings or a TCP setting called "keep alive".

I'm not familiar with keep alive on Windows only bigger machines. It's in the spec so I guess windows could set it.

 

[euro]

To my knowledge there is no timeout. I've left the system here logged in for over an hour without touching the keyboard to no ill effect. I'll ask one of the admins anyway.

I have not noticed a timeout - I seem to be basically logged in permanently

 

[rodi]

I think I've seen a post timeout... where I got distracted while composing a post - and come back and found I couldn't post... That's different than logging out though...

I don't recall the details of when I've seen it... but remember being frustrated. So now, if I come back to the window where I was composing (and got sidetracked) I do a quick "copy" of the post before submitting... just in case it doesn't go through.

My husband has the same issue on another forum... he now composes his longer posts in notepad, then c/p's it to the post submittal.

 

[MRG]

You can programmatically set time outs. I know keep alive can be set via api, you can probably do the same with a webserver, I've never done it.

Could be an on purpose decision. I don't know what system functions are used for the threads. I know for things like stream files you can run out of handles(a resource) depending on settings. I spent a few days locked in a room because a client(who didnt read) kept running out of sockets(handles) on an app that handled high volume IP traffic.

 

[sengsational]

There certainly is a timeout. It's set in the web server. You can see who has an active session by going to the active users list. This is just the way the web works. If you don't poke at the web server "for a while", then your name will fall out of that list. It's hard to experiment with because by going to the list, you might reactivate yourself. So you'd need your SO to check after 30 or so minutes, and your handle would drop from the list. keep-alive allows multiple requests on a single connection, but is still subject to the web server's time-out.

There is probably some kind of "re-login with a cookie behind the scenes" thing going on, which makes it appear that you've had your same session "forever". But you haven't.

As to why some people have a problem with posting after a long wait and others don't seem to have a problem, it could be something to do with how their browser interacts. If someone starts a post and finishes it an hour later and it works, I would bet that there some session cookie that reconstitutes the session. If it doesn't work, that reconstituted session functionality didn't work, and it falls back to a manual log-in.

 

[sengsational]

'Remember Me' checkbox

One variable, which of course I only thought of when I wasn't thinking about this (hehe!), is the status of the 'remember me' checkbox on the login screen. That would make a difference, for sure.

 

[target2019]

The wildcard in this is the browser, what version, SSLv in use. If OP tried this in different browsers, and came up with same result, then there is a problem server-side.

Also, wondering if the control panel setting for staying anonymous on "viewing" list could be related.

In the browser, at least in FF, I believe it is possible to set a lower timeout. If that were the case, then the local setting might override the serverside session timeout, especially if local setting was more stringent.

What a mess computers have become.

 

[MRG]

One variable, which of course I only thought of when I wasn't thinking about this (hehe!), is the status of the 'remember me' checkbox on the login screen. That would make a difference, for sure.

I tried to duplicate the issue with the remember me ticked both ways. I am unable to reproduce the issue either way. However I'm guessing at the steps to recreate.