random logouts?

[lazerBucket]

Hello, this is my first post here so I'll introduce myself:

Username is lazerBucket (don't ask me why lol) and I'm posting here because I'd like to report recent problems on the forum I am a member of. I am not the administrator, nor a moderator of any kind, but I have noticed that there have been numerous accounts of people getting logged out for no reason. The forum software is smf 2.0 and these attempts appear to happen randomly, but are getting increasingly frequent. In the forums, we've come to the conclusion that keyloggers are somehow responsible and have taken appropriate measures. Unfortunately, this incident is happening while our sole administrator is away for a while. I'm not sure if this is in the right place, but this place seemed the most suitable. Apologies for any inconveniences.

-lazerBucket

[kat]

Hi, man! Welcome!

It could be that the admin has the cookie expiry set to a really short time, or something.

Unfortunately, only the admin can do something about that.

It might help you to empty your browser's cache and cookies, though.

[Siirist]

Hi, man! Welcome!

It could be that the admin has the cookie expiry set to a really short time, or something.

Unfortunately, only the admin can do something about that.

It might help you to empty your browser's cache and cookies, though.

Hey K@,

Anyway, there is also this thing (see the attached screen shot), that in the past, for me (even on my own forums), had 60 or a smaller # in the box and it would log me out.

Just a thought.
Cloud

[kat]

Yeah, different people have different settings.

All down to the admin, though, of course.

[lazerBucket]

Hi, man! Welcome!

It could be that the admin has the cookie expiry set to a really short time, or something.

Unfortunately, only the admin can do something about that.

It might help you to empty your browser's cache and cookies, though.

Hey K@,

Anyway, there is also this thing (see the attached screen shot), that in the past, for me (even on my own forums), had 60 or a smaller # in the box and it would log me out.

Just a thought.
Cloud

Wow! Thanks for the warm welcome
But I have to say, the cookie thing and what you guys are implying is, according to my sources, not the cause 
Many people, including myself, can account to the there being a "forever" selection. In fact, one of our members just had to log back in a few times today and clearly remembers setting it to forever when logging in.

[b4pjoe]

It most likely is a spammer attempting to log in with random users accounts and after it reaches the threshold of failed attempts it logs that user out. I went through it at my forum for a few week before I got it under control with 3 different mods.

httpBL

Stop Spammer

Bad Behavior mod

[Nexusstorm]

Or it could be another issue.

When these random log-outs occur how many people are on the forum?

As I had a similar issue which I finally discovered was being caused by the host I was using, one of my forums has over 1000 members with around 300 to 400 members being online at any one time, they were getting DC'ed or logged out of the forum due to the servers we were hosting on couldn't handle all the queries and to the database.

After I moved to a more reliable host service I have not had the issues occur again. Which in the long run is now saving me dollars than costing me dollars. As time = Money

[b4pjoe]

It's easy enough to check the error log and see if someone is having multiple failed log ins and if the IP address is different than the account holders. That is how I found out what was happening on my forum. Of course you need admin access to be able to view the error log.

[lazerBucket]

It most likely is a spammer attempting to log in with random users accounts and after it reaches the threshold of failed attempts it logs that user out. I went through it at my forum for a few week before I got it under control with 3 different mods.

httpBL

Stop Spammer

Bad Behavior mod

whoa, what?
I get the first part, but you lost me at httpBL 

Or it could be another issue.

When these random log-outs occur how many people are on the forum?

As I had a similar issue which I finally discovered was being caused by the host I was using, one of my forums has over 1000 members with around 300 to 400 members being online at any one time, they were getting DC'ed or logged out of the forum due to the servers we were hosting on couldn't handle all the queries and to the database.

After I moved to a more reliable host service I have not had the issues occur again. Which in the long run is now saving me dollars than costing me dollars. As time = Money

As I said, these logouts are at completely random times. If I told you that there were a large amount of people on the forum most of the time these logouts occur, I wouldn't know if I am lying or not. As for the last part, I have no control over that  Apparently, the admin has just moved out of the country and is in a new area (pardon my vagueness but I don't want to reveal much) but that was close to a week and a half ago, so the admin ought to return soon. When he returns I'll be sure to link him to this topic.

As for the members, I have taken count, and it appears as though almost half of our member base has never made a single post. Although some of these have rumored to be dummy accounts for ban testing and such, most of them are not. Also, the average amount of members that log onto the forums per day is ~400. The most people that have ever been on the forums at one time is 192 (I might be a bit off).

Thanks for helping me out guys. I really appreciate this 

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

What joec88 said would sound like a logical explanation, because this would not be the first time we've heard of similar problems. There have been some cases where bots trying to bruteforce their way in has lead legit users being kicked out after the limit of failed logins was reached.
What actually causes that, and how to prevent it is still a mystery to me though...

[b4pjoe]

It most likely is a spammer attempting to log in with random users accounts and after it reaches the threshold of failed attempts it logs that user out. I went through it at my forum for a few week before I got it under control with 3 different mods.

httpBL

Stop Spammer

Bad Behavior mod

whoa, what?
I get the first part, but you lost me at httpBL 

httpBL, Stop Spammer, and the Bad Behavior mod are the name of the 3 mods I installed that has stopped the problem completely. You need admin access to check your error log or to install mods though.

I just went through this experience a few weeks ago. Every day it was a different user getting logged out about every hour. Then it picked up to where it was 3 or 4 users getting kicked out every day. the next day it would be 3 or 4 more. Installing those mods has cured it completely.

[kat]

how to prevent it is still a mystery to me though...

robots.txt?

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Well, that is meant to stop legitimate bots from following certain links, but this is hopefully not a search engine at work - but more likely spambots or hackers.

[glennk]

I have this ploblem ongoing on my forum. Unfortunately I cant install mods either so cant cure it.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

RC5 should fix the seemingly random logout problem.