Sessions are constantly dropping

[mtlinfo]

Hi,

I have a script where the session are constantly dropping and since we ran out of ideas on how to fix it, I tought of installing a super simple script to test if session would also drop at any given time and I found this tutorial here...

http://codenewbie.com/tutorials/1131.html

I installed that "login with session" script on my site where you can login using the username/password joe/joe at this url.

http://www.justedesrabais.com/richard/index.php

The problem that I have with it is that sometimes I can login and click the links and everything looks fine and other times I login but when I click the links to arrive at page 2 for example, the session drops and it brings me back to the login form on index.php.

Do you have a clue where the problem might come from?

Since the session is dropping on both scripts, It has to be a problem on my ISP's server but where exactly!

What should I tell him to look for?

Thanks for any advices you might give me.

Mtlinfo

[sde]

i guess you read my mind while i was replying to the pm =)

well i really think the session is not starting in the first place.

do you know what o/s the server is running? and what web server?

i think the session paths are defined in the php.ini file, .. and you do have to make sure that path is a valid directory.

i've never had to mess with it much though .. usually it just works =/

[mtlinfo]

Read you pm,

It's not a coding error sde because I have another browser window open right now on your script (see URL above) and without ever closing it, the script worked fine for a while (I can click links and be redirected to the other pages with no problems) and 5 minutes or so later the session are dropped again the login form comes back.

Now you think this was normal right? It's just the session is out of time !

Well NO, I login again and I can get back in it alright but this time I click the links and i'm given the login form again everytime I click the links on the index.php page!!!

It's not the first time and script where that bug happens. Sometimes everything is fine, it keeps the sessions for a while and the next time i login, the session either closes as fast as I can login.

It's definitely a server bug. I'm not a pro but would bet 100$ bucks here :-)

You see, as I wrote this reply, the script ****** up again and now the links are working fine again and the script keeps it's session alive.

Anyone had this weird bug before?

Mtlinfo

[mtlinfo]

Ok guys listen to this...

By luck the tech support of my ISP was available on ICQ even at 4am cool hey.

You were right sde, the bug was coming from the file named php.ini and it helped them focus on that file and 5 minutes later they updated this value:

session.gc_dividend / session.gc_divisor.

This value was making the session ID change from time to time and that was causing the crash of our scripts.

Everything work fine now.

Thanks guys and remember that value.

By fixing it, it will save you countless nights without sleep because your script would be crashing all the time while in fact the bug was coming from that stupid server value hehe.

Ciao :-)


Richard