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Rick5
Premium Member
join:2001-02-06

Rick5

Premium Member

Problem with Comcast . com

Wondering if anyone else is having this issue?
When I go to Comcast.com and sign in it offers the option to stay signed in which I select as I go there fairly often to watch TV shows etc. According to the pop up next to the option it's supposed to then keep me signed in for 30 days. However every time I go back I have to sign in again.

I never had that issue before and it started about 60 to 90 days ago I think. I have no other issues with other websites remembering my logins and so i'm wondering if it's an issue with Comcast and their putting in a persistent cookie or however they track this.

Anyways..if one or two others here in this forum could check for me i'd appreciate it.

Thanks

~Rick

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

1 recommendation

tshirt

Premium Member

It's something in your browser blocking the actual cookie being reset.
the same happens to me in IE10. If you can find a clear/delete the correct cookies, it should work again for a while.

Johkal
Cool Cat
MVM
join:2002-11-13
Pennsyltucky

1 recommendation

Johkal

MVM

I have the same issue as Rick. I deleted all cookies associated with Comcast, logged in @ Comcast.com, selected keep me signed in, shut it out & then loaded Comcast.com again & it still wants me to log in.
Ref: I'm using Chrome

camper
just visiting this planet
Premium Member
join:2010-03-21
Bethel, CT

1 recommendation

camper to Rick5

Premium Member

to Rick5
It looks like the permanent cookie from comcast . com is possibly being converted to a session cookie. Some things to check:

Do you have firewall software installed on your PC that converts all cookies to session cookies?

Do you have ad-blocking software installed in your browser that converts all cookies to session cookies?

Do you have your browser configured to erase all cookies upon exit?

Do you have your browser configured to convert all cookies to session cookies?
Rick5
Premium Member
join:2001-02-06

Rick5

Premium Member

Camper...just to reiterate I'm not having the problem with any other site besides Comcast. Several other websites I visit often I select the remember option and have no problems when I go back (ie: yahoo, BBR). and so, this Is specific to Comcast for me which would seem to rule out your list.

Johkal
Cool Cat
MVM
join:2002-11-13
Pennsyltucky

1 edit

Johkal

MVM

Same for me as well. It's only Comcast which will require a log in every time.

I'll also add that I can stay logged in on "Comcast.net"
Why ".com" is an issue is unknown.

camper
just visiting this planet
Premium Member
join:2010-03-21
Bethel, CT

camper to Rick5

Premium Member

to Rick5
said by Rick5:

this Is specific to Comcast for me which would seem to rule out your list.

 

Ahhh... OK.

I just logged in to comcast . com using Firefox, and went to Tools | Options | Privacy | Show cookies

I see that many of the cookies comcast uses are session cookies. One cookie is set to expire in 30 minutes, the remaining cookies are set to expire as soon as they are set, i.e., they expire immediately.

Based upon that, it looks like the issue is on the comcast side of things.
Rick5
Premium Member
join:2001-02-06

Rick5

Premium Member

And so Camper...when u go back to Comcast.com after selecting remember me and closing your browser are you being asked to relog in as well?

camper
just visiting this planet
Premium Member
join:2010-03-21
Bethel, CT

1 recommendation

camper

Premium Member

Yup.

Even when I select "remember me", there are still a lot of session cookies given to me, though the early expire cookies I mentioned in my prior message now have a longer expiration date.

After selecting "remember me," when I closed the browser (FF25.0, Windows 7-64bit) and returned to comcast.com, I had to log in again.

One other thing I noticed, there were cookies for comcast.net which disappeared when I closed my browser. Don't know if that was intentional on comcast's part or not.

It still looks to me as something that comcast needs to work on....
Rick5
Premium Member
join:2001-02-06

Rick5

Premium Member

Click for full size
lol..now this is interesting. Sign in ...BUT..I am signed in.
Rick5

Rick5

Premium Member

Well ...I think I've resolved the issue..at least for IE.
It would seem that you not only have to select the remember me selection BUT also let IE remember your password.
I've never done that as I have a 3rd party password program I use. So, it must check the cookie as well as the windows registry where ie stores passwords. Now, when I close the brower and go back there i'm logged in BUT it still brings up that other sign in window BUT i'm logged in anyway.

Thanks all for your replies.

camper
just visiting this planet
Premium Member
join:2010-03-21
Bethel, CT

1 recommendation

camper

Premium Member

said by Rick5:

It would seem that you not only have to select the remember me selection BUT also let IE remember your password.

 

imo, that's putting a band-aid® on the symptom without solving the underlying problem.

You're just having IE log in for you each time you visit the site.
camper

camper to Rick5

Premium Member

to Rick5
said by Rick5:

lol..now this is interesting. Sign in ...BUT..I am signed in.

 

I've said it before, the comcast sites try to be smarter than they are capable of being.

NetFixer
From My Cold Dead Hands
Premium Member
join:2004-06-24
The Boro
Netgear CM500
Pace 5268AC
TRENDnet TEW-829DRU

NetFixer

Premium Member

said by camper:

said by Rick5:

lol..now this is interesting. Sign in ...BUT..I am signed in.

 

I've said it before, the comcast sites try to be smarter than they are capable of being.

I won't go into the smartness factor, but Comcast has always required you to reaffirm your password when you go into any account management page (at least for my account(s) and with the browsers I use), even if you are already logged into the site. Yahoo! does the same thing.

It is apparently a security fetish of some webmasters who make the assumption that perhaps someone other than you has gained access to your PC after you logged in (at least they don't require a webcam for facial recognition...yet).

camper
just visiting this planet
Premium Member
join:2010-03-21
Bethel, CT

camper

Premium Member

said by NetFixer:

Comcast has always required you to reaffirm your password when you go into any account management page (at least for my account(s) and with the browsers I use), even if you are already logged into the site. Yahoo! does the same thing.

 

Yup, that's true for many sites. Even if you elect to stay logged in, you have to re-enter your password to enter a more security-sensitive area of the site. (and I regard that behavior as a feature).

However, with the problem under discussion, you cannot even hit the home page without re-entering the login credentials. I proffer that the home page is not a more security-sensitive area.
Rick5
Premium Member
join:2001-02-06

Rick5

Premium Member

I agree with camper. this isn't a reauthorization issue. supposedly at the homepage if you select the remember me option it should keep u logged into the site for 30 days..
It even says this next to the option..

"Why Remember Me?

When you choose Remember Me on sign in, we will remember who you are and keep you signed in for up to 30 days unless you sign out. This is great if you sign in all the time to check your email or watch TV shows online."

And by having IE remember my password it was probably just a workaround to this.
IMO...the issue is a cookie problem on comcasts end and rather than being a persistent one it's just a session one.
It didn't use to have this problem and like I said..it just started in the last few mos.

NetFixer
From My Cold Dead Hands
Premium Member
join:2004-06-24
The Boro
Netgear CM500
Pace 5268AC
TRENDnet TEW-829DRU

NetFixer to camper

Premium Member

to camper
said by camper:

Yup, that's true for many sites. Even if you elect to stay logged in, you have to re-enter your password to enter a more security-sensitive area of the site. (and I regard that behavior as a feature).

However, with the problem under discussion, you cannot even hit the home page without re-entering the login credentials. I proffer that the home page is not a more security-sensitive area.

I am not seeing that symptom. In fact, I just did a test wherein:

1. I logged out of my cookie initiated login session at comcast.net and then ended the browser session.

2. I cranked up the browser again, went to www.comcast.net and logged in again.

3. I next went to www.comcast.com in another browser tab, and I found that (as expected) I was still logged in.

4. I shut down both browser tabs and ended that browser session.

5. I launched the browser again and went to both www.comcast.net and www.comcast.com and found that I was still logged in at both sites.

6. I repeated the steps 1-5 twice more and I did not have any problem with either www.comcast.net or www.comcast.com not honoring the login cookie, or with requiring a separate login for www.comcast.com after I had already logged into www.comcast.net. The only exception was the account management password reaffirmation process that I previously discussed. And FWIW, the browser I use is SeaMonkey 2.13.2 (yes I know it is "out of date", but it works...if it ain't broke, don't fix it).

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

tshirt

Premium Member

said by NetFixer:

And FWIW, the browser I use is SeaMonkey 2.13.2 (yes I know it is "out of date", but it works...if it ain't broke, don't fix it).

And that maybe your savior,
This problem is something that started after a series of updates, maybe 6 months ago, and has been intermittent but getting worse (in my experience).
And I've seen it on other "secure" login sites, only the exact fix seems to vary.
The remnants if some "no longer permitted" security scheme, plus workarounds X,Y,and Z.
won't likely be eliminated until a total refresh is coded from scratch.

NetFixer
From My Cold Dead Hands
Premium Member
join:2004-06-24
The Boro
Netgear CM500
Pace 5268AC
TRENDnet TEW-829DRU

NetFixer

Premium Member

said by tshirt:

said by NetFixer:

And FWIW, the browser I use is SeaMonkey 2.13.2 (yes I know it is "out of date", but it works...if it ain't broke, don't fix it).

And that maybe your savior...

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. After Justin moved this site to the "cloud", my "remember me" cookie stopped working here with both Seamonkey 2.13.2 and IE8 (yes, also "out of date", but us outdated old farts have to hang tough and stick together).

Both browsers had dslreports.com setup as an "allow cookies" site, but I was not getting any permanent cookies from this site. It took a bit of troubleshooting with Justin to figure out the cause. The cause was that the site's login code sets the cookie from https://secure.dslreports.com (in the background with no visible browser window) instead of from http://www.dslreports.com, and the different hostname combined with being https instead of http was not allowing the permanent login cookie to be accepted (until I also authorized the hidden https site as an "allow cookies" site).

Comcast uses CDN and a lot of off-site services on their web sites, and it is possible that is a contributing factor to the Comcast "remember me" cookie problem for some people (and/or browsers).