Forum: Login problem

[bob3160]

@ lakrsrool
"In the case of Chrome and IE these browsers do not provide a way to delete website specific cookies so in the case of these two browsers unless one wants to install an add-on to maintain website specific cookies all cookies have to be cleared to fix the problem that Avast has with their cookies in my case."
For Chrome, this statement isn't true. you just need to learn to dig a little deeper into the settings:
https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647


This may also hold true for IE but it's not my default browser.

[midnight]

@CraigB,

I just logged in on IE11 without having to turn java script on.

Congratulations

So what did you do to fix the issue displayed in your prior pic?

I didn't do anything to fix the issue.  I just went to the forum and logged in.

[CraigB]

@CraigB,

I just logged in on IE11 without having to turn java script on.

Congratulations

So what did you do to fix the issue displayed in your prior pic?

I didn't do anything to fix the issue.  I just went to the forum and logged in.

So why couldn't you log in before with IE "as you stated" and now you can.

[lakrsrool]

@ lakrsrool
"In the case of Chrome and IE these browsers do not provide a way to delete website specific cookies so in the case of these two browsers unless one wants to install an add-on to maintain website specific cookies all cookies have to be cleared to fix the problem that Avast has with their cookies in my case."
For Chrome, this statement isn't true. you just need to learn to dig a little deeper into the settings:
https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647


This may also hold true for IE but it's not my default browser.

Thanks for the tip, but I'm already aware of this in Chrome.

What I'm talking about is drilling down to the website specific cookies which Firefox is really good at.  Check out the attachment and you can see that what FF provides is the ability to deal with just the Avast cookies out of the many 100's of cookies in a typical list which is all that Chrome provides.

What I've done to fix Chrome so it does what FF already provides is install the add-on "Edit ThisCookie" which as you can see from the 2nd attachment now provides the ability to get website specific cookie information and apply whatever changes you might want.

As far as IE is concerned, while the browser doesn't provide a list of cookies it does provide an extensive setting protocol to delete cookies including a check-box to keep cookies that apply to sites in your "favorites" settings so with this setting only cookies that do not apply to sites in "favorites" would be deleted so I could have removed the Avast forum from my favorites and then this would have allowed me to remove these cookies and still keep most if not all of my important cookies I need a lot (unfortunately in my hast I didn't do that).  Of course thanks to the Avast cookie problems I'll be dealing for many months now as I run across them in regards to logins and security settings that were all in the cookies I had for the 154 sites that I need cookies for that are now gone in all four of my browsers unfortunately.

Apparently you're using Chrome as your default, sorry but there are areas that Chrome cannot match Mozilla browsers (which includes not only Firefox but SeaMonkey and Pale Moon to some extent even though PM is now officially a "fork", etc).  For one thing the only way to get a "warning" message when closing multiple tab Chrome browsers (which as you know can be many tabs) is to install an add-on to do this (and this does not work well I might add anyway).  So if you have a bunch of tabs and forget you wanted to address something, to bad, in Chrome it's closed without any double-check warning for the user.  And of course there is the cookie issue which also requires an add-on to drill down l like Mozilla browser can already.  Another thing Chrome does not do for the user is to provide a way to clear Cache when exiting the browser like Mozilla browsers will do (for that matter IE will do this as well).  Nope, once again you have to install an add-on to do this in Chrome which I had do by adding the "Click&Clean" add-on in Chrome to do this.  Also the "element hiding" add-ons in Chrome do not work well and will generally often fail to work when initially loading the browser which in the case of Mozilla browsers and IE for that matter work flawlessly.  I've also found that in some cases a few of the Chrome add-ons fail to load at all.  Also the manner in which Chrome loads pages is not to my liking, Chrome will load in "chunks" (can't recall off hand why that is but to put it simply it's just the inherent way Chrome is built) while on the other hand Mozilla browsers (my Firefox and Pale Moon) will load pages all at once which I prefer and I would add by the time Chrome has finally loaded an entire page I find it clearly slower in the end than Firefox and especially in the case of Pale Moon which loads very quickly.  Also as far as Pale Moon is concerned it is much more adaptable to user preferences, i.e. you can have the tabs at the top like all the other browsers do now (same as Chrome and Firefox etc now) or you can have the tabs lower and the address bar at the top (like it used to be for all browsers).  Also for Pale Moon you have the choice to show the status bar which is nice because it provides the user with more progress information while loading pages. I could go on, but suffice to say I'm not that much of a Chrome fan, the one thing Chrome is good at are "Themes" which I guess is nice since I'll have to admit I do like the theme I use for Chrome a little better than what I have in the other browsers.  So I guess if aesthetics is your preference Chrome is nice but I'd have to think that functionality is more important overall of which Chrome in many respects simply can't match Mozilla browsers.

[lakrsrool]

Just for your information CCleaner and WinPatrol are able to clear specific cookies, there are probably many more programs that have the same ability.

The Avast forum also only uses two cookies - avast.com and forum.avast.com

Thanks Graig, I really appreciate your helpful input.  I've ended up installing an add-on for Chrome (Edit ThisCookie) to do want I wanted with cookies in the future.  This provides the ability to drill-down to site-specific cookies which is already native to Firefox in the first place.  Unfortunately in my haste I've ended up deleting all cookies in my default Pale Moon browser because I wanted to make sure that it was true that Avast does not support Pale Moon so I ended up deleting all the cookies.  Same thing for Chrome and IE, but I rarely use these browsers.  Thankfully Firefox has the ability to drill-down to site-specific cookies so I'm all good with Firefox but I'm now using Pale Moon because of the direction Firefox is going as of version 42 which is becoming more and more like a clone of Chrome unfortunately.  I will now be able to drill-down in FF (as before) as well as Chrome and will be able to delete just Avast cookies in the future when Avast does this again.  As far as IE is concerned this browser has a protect "favorites" cookies setting so I can just remove the Avast forum from my favorites and deal with their cookies this way in IE.  Unfortunately this time I didn't think about doing this so I've lost all my cookie settings in IE as well as Chrome and Pale Moon which will cause me to need to be addressing logins and security settings for many months as I run across them (as was the case the last time this occurred).  I've already spent over 2½ hours addressing some of the more important sites that need cookies set. Some of the security setting are very cumbersome where I have to have codes sent to me, also there are some sites that I either don't have the  passwords or ID's for and in  some cases resetting the passwords etc doesn't even work so I cannot even get into these sites without signing up as another user and in some cases I really want to keep the userID already have but can't do this.  Very frustrating when sites do this like Avast does by not addressing their cookies responsibly.  Well again, now I'll be able to deal with it better, but that doesn't help me in the situation I find myself now.

I've checked these apps out that you mentioned since at one time I was interested in being able to block all program updates (or at least warn me if this is occurring) and I'm not sure but MAYBE WinPatrol provides this.

Do you use either or both of these apps?

Do you know if WinPatrol has the ability to intercede when applications might attempt to auto-update?

I've had Avast set to not update, but sometimes Avast will ignore this setting.  Also I do not want FF to update either, but I think at least FF honors settings that users have and do not just over-ride settings like Avast will do sometimes unfortunately.  Avast will use the excuse that it involves a "security issue" when they will sometimes simply ignore user settings and do an upgrade regardless of what the user wants.

The Avast forum also only uses two cookies - avast.com and forum.avast.com

Well actually Firefox lists 8 cookies for the Avast forum:
Avast.com - locale2
Avast.com - IDT2
Avast.com - avastComGiCountry
forum.avast.com - forumavast.com
forum.avast.com - PHPSESSID
ui.ff.avast.com - userid
ui.ff.avast.com - userid
ui.ff.avast.com - userid

In the case of the Chrome add-on the last 3 cookies are broken down into more detail:
avast.com - s_fid
avast.com - s_nr2
avast.com - s_vi

Check out the attachments I posted in my reply to Bob regarding this.

Of course as I posted before, the Avast forum had 22 different cookies in FF when I checked before deleting them when FF (and all the other browsers) failed to allow me to login to the Avast forum.  So clearly the was a lot of "junk" cookies left behind by the Avast forum, some of which most likely was causing my issue logging into the forum.

[DavidR]

Not sure if ui.ff.avast.com is still valid, but it is present on mine.

There is another possible and that is id.avast.com and this is used when validating your forum and or my.avast.com (and a cookie for that) logon.

There is another for blog.avast.com, support.avast.com, store.avast.com, my.new.avast.com and press.avast.com.

Most of those are also session cookies only.

I use the firefox add-on CookieMonster to manage cookies - I block all 3rd party cookies - I specifically allow some cookies and that would include those sub-domains of avast.com. Other than that I usually allow session cookies, these get removed when the browser is closed.

[midnight]

@CraigB

This morning it didn't show that I had to have Java Script turned on.

[lakrsrool]

Not sure if ui.ff.avast.com is still valid, but it is present on mine.

There is another possible and that is id.avast.com and this is used when validating your forum and or my.avast.com (and a cookie for that) logon.

There is another for blog.avast.com, support.avast.com, store.avast.com, my.new.avast.com and press.avast.com.

Most of those are also session cookies only.

I use the firefox add-on CookieMonster to manage cookies - I block all 3rd party cookies - I specifically allow some cookies and that would include those sub-domains of avast.com. Other than that I usually allow session cookies, these get removed when the browser is closed.

Before I deleted all the Avast cookies in FF to fix the forum login problem there were three instances of "ui.ff.avast.com" listed in FF.

After I deleted all the Avast cookies and logged into the Avast forum successfully finally I ended up with three more instances of this same cookie.

So it would appear that the Avast forum is currently adding these cookies.

As to the CookieMonster add-on, I totally agree that this is a very good add-on but I find that I can do most if not all that I would personally need out of CookieMonster just using what is already native to FF in regards to dealing with cookies.

Since you're a FF user maybe you haven't run across this: Go to "Tools" then go to "Page Info" (instead of going to "Option" were the "Show Cookies" option is located and probably where most users go), here you will find a plethora of information on the current webpage your on (more than any browsers provide that I'm aware of), now go to the "Security" tab where you'll find a "View Cookies" button which provides the user the opportunity to remove the cookies that ONLY APPLY to the website you're on.  This is really all I need myself and as I've said I'm not aware of any other browser that goes to these links to provide the user the opportunity to see this much data about the current website being used as you'll find in "Page Info".  As I said, I think most users will end up going from "Tools" > "Option" which is more typical of what you'll find with other browsers, however in the case of FF this "Page Info" option is very helpful.

I have enjoyed FF for many many years and would have personally never change to Pale Moon if it wasn't for the direction that Firefox is now heading as of version 42.  As you probably already know as of Firefox 42, unsigned addons cannot be used in the standard release (and beta) builds of Firefox. Full stop.  I've got a couple of add-ons I don't expect much response from the developers and in the case of one of them I've used it for many years and it can't be duplicated by any other currently available add-ons that I'm aware of. As I see it, at which time the FF customer base is unconditionally denied the ability to make their own respective decisions regarding what add-ons they are allowed to use then this becomes a potential deal breaker in my view as I would suspect is likely the case with a quit a few FF users besides myself.  So as of version 40 I'm not accepting any more FF upgrades since Mozilla has revealed that it will deprecate support for its current add-ons and go the Chrome route thus essentially becoming more and more just another Chrome-clone sadly.

I'm currently very please with Pale Moon (the fact that Avast will not bother to support PM aside, which btw is the only website I've ran across so far that I've really got anything to complain about using PM) and find it very fast, dependable and efficient.  Of course the future at some point maybe in question, but for now I'm very pleased.  I personally find that other than FF, PM handles add-ons and provides much more advantages to the user than Chrome or IE for that matter.

[DavidR]

I don't need to go to the page info - I just look at CookieMonster - and it will show all avast related cookies.

Many topics relating to FF and unsigned add-ons in the general and this forum, which is why the AOS add-on has now been signed.

[bob3160]

"Apparently you're using Chrome as your default, sorry but there are areas that Chrome cannot match Mozilla browsers "
You're entitled to your opinion even if I don't happen to agree with it.
(Please keep your reply short and sweet. )

[lakrsrool]

I don't need to go to the page info - I just look at CookieMonster - and it will show all avast related cookies.

I understand that CookieMonster will do this (as will most other Cookie manager add-ons), and I fully appreciate and thank you for posting about the CookieMonster add-on and have previously said that in my opinion it "is a very good add-on".

I was only pointing out that in the case of the FF browser this same function is already available to the user, along with a lot of other webpage info as well.   And of course with this in mind I only meant to say that Cookie manager add-ons can be an absolute necessity for many browsers but on the other hand it is in fact not really that necessary in the case of the FF browser for this very reason.

[davews]

Just to say that I can also not login to the forum with Palemoon - all I get is a blank page with an exclamation mark in an orange triangle and my addressbar is showing https://id.avast.com/?target=https%3A%2F%2Fforum.avast.com#login
I am posting this in Opera 12. You are not alone.

[lakrsrool]

Just to say that I can also not login to the forum with Palemoon - all I get is a blank page with an exclamation mark in an orange triangle and my addressbar is showing https://id.avast.com/?target=https%3A%2F%2Fforum.avast.com#login
I am posting this in Opera 12. You are not alone.

Thanks for your post Dave, it is up to Avast to want to make the effort to support the Pale Moon browser addressed here in this Avast topic: Cannot sign in here with the Pale Moon Browser

All Pale Moon users are getting this same page attempting to login to Avast.

For some users (including myself) it has been discovered that Avast cookies were causing a problem using any browser to login to Avast, by clearing the Avast cookies this solved the problem for all browsers with the exception of Pale Moon of which an issue remains that consists of more than an Avast cookie related problem in this case.

This problem for Pale Moon users logging into Avast started getting reported as of Aug 09, 2015 as evidenced by a Pale Moon forum topic on this issue.

[lakrsrool]

In reference to my post above this problem with Pale Moon users not being able to login to Avast was first reported in the Pale Moon forum around the same time that appears to coincided with the date of this comment referencing a change Avast made as we see here in this Avast forum post:  my.avast.com and forum.avast.com are the same now .  I would add that Pale Moon has reportedly done everything possible regarding this Avast login incompatibility issue with Pale Moon.

So I'd have to conclude that this issue all comes down to just the procedure used by Avast to login to Avast, users can still read the forum without logging in.  Of course this login issue includes logging into the "myavast" account as well since as pointed out above these logins have merged and as I pointed out above you might note as of the same date that users started reporting this login issue for Pale Moon users.

Clearly this issue is on Avast to fix if they really wanted to make the effort....  I can disable Windows User Account Control (UAC) and will then get a hang sometimes instead of the typical results that has been posted but of course the login is simply failing in another way and of course it makes no sense to remove recommended security in the first place just because Avast fails to remain compatible with Pale Moon.

It is sad to see this so often pervasive corporate attitude that emerges as a result of organizations in general becoming so expansive that they see no need to make the effort to accommodate as contrast to what is typically the case with smaller organizations.

We should all be able to agree here in this Avast forum that it is not at all that much to ask Avast to have the comity to simply make the effort to support Pale Moon browser users. 

[bob3160]

"it is not at all that much to ask Avast to have the comity to simply make the effort to support Pale Moon browser users. "
Eventually. Right now I'm sure they are concentrating on Avast 2016. (Short and sweet.)