"Invalid Session"

[Tim Bowen]

Well dang... I just typed a long & (as best I can tell) very thoughtful reply to a post here and was greeted with the cold & calculating words, "invalid session"... This has happened to me several times before... is this to prevent the long-winded from replying? Is there a specified time frame for posting? Should I just go for quick left hooks, jabs, & uppercuts???? 8) What am the deal??? Muchos grass.

[PeterUK]

...under two different circumstances. The first is where I've started a thread or a reply, then get distracted by say a phone call, go back, resume my post (after quite some time) and then I've got the Invalid Session message.

Second instance is when I've gone on a bit, took ages to type it and got the same message.

0le Fuzzy had the same problem some time ago and posted a question about it but I can't remember what the reason for it was.

I do remember Paul suggesting using something like MS Word to type the body into and then cut and paste the text into the box. You can also spell check it too.

Don't worry, it's a quirk of the system that effects (affrects - I can never remember - perhaps if I'd used Word I could have checked :D ) us all.

Peter

[TDPRI]

When you vistit the page the cookie on your system starts a "sesssion" for you, keeping you logged in as you surf around etc. But when you take too long away from any activity on the page... in effect you are idle and it figures that you are no longer present and your session expires. Once your session expires the session number on the post you've carefully written is now "invalid".

Now this happens to you every single time you visit the page. When you leave the page you don't log out and so your session is idle while you go grab a sandwich. The system times out and your session expires. It's a great thing.

But it can happen when you post a very long message too, because as far as the system is concerned you've been idle too long. It doesn't know that you're typing.

Yes, you can compose off line. Or you can hit the Preview button in mid-message and then keep working on the rest of your post. If it's really long then just hit the preview button every few minutes.

Sessions time out in 3600 seconds -- which is an hour, but this includes all of your time on the board while you're active AND your idle time. Sessions will renew automatically if you're active for the hour, it's only when you go idle to the system that you time out.

Hope this helps.
Paul Green

[Tim Bowen]

Thanks very much for the info. I'll certainly keep these suggestions in mind the next time I'm typing a novel! Well I wonder how Mr. Fuzzy took to the news that his session was invalid... 8^)

[reverbbb]

This same thing happened to me when I got called away for a family emergency. When I got back, I finished my long winded post. Ooch!

It occured to me, that if you suspect that you may time out, then simply highlight all your text and <Ctrl C> or right mouse button/copy. Then, if you get this unfortunate time-out message, you can simply backup and paste the copied text <Ctrl V> into the post and try again.