Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Message Board Access

About one week ago, something changed on my PC that is preventing me from logging in from home. I think it may have been when I un-installed a toolbar that was mysteriously added to my internet explorer. When I access www.axiomaudio.com, I am asked for my username and password to login, it recognizes me, but when I try to get to the boards, it kicks me out again.

I have been working with someone from Axiom (James) who has been great and he thinks this is the issue:

The difficulty you're having is caused by the messageboard not being able to identify the referring website. This is the website containing the form you are trying to submit ... and it should always be "www.axiomaudio.com". This identification is needed to prevent spammers from spamming the messageboard from a remote location using a form that they created themselves. For some reason, your computer or a piece of hardware that is controlling your internet connection is preventing the referring information from being transmitted to the messageboard. Since the messageboard cannot identify your referring page, it is refusing to post your message. Unfortunately, I cannot override this feature of the messageboard as the UBBThreads messageboard software doesn't allow for it, and it would create a security hole.

He suggested adding the Axiom site to my internet options security and privacy tabs, but I still can not log in.

Has anyone else ever had this type of problem?

Thanks, John

I've never had this problem but the first thing that came to mind is to make sure that cookies are enabled in your browser. Other than that I can't think of anything.

Pete

The added toolbar sounds like spyware. I would suggest that you download a spyware detection program, and see what it finds. Bazooka is freeware.

Also, do you have current virus protection?

I use McAfee anti-virus and it gets updated regularly. I'll try the Bazooka freeware when I get home tonight.

The software that I un-installed was I-search. The toolbar just appeared one day last week. I don't know if that caused this, but it coincides with the start of this problem.

Thanks

Spybot S&D (search and destroy) is also a VERY highly rated spyware detector and remover. It is free, but he asks for donations.

Also Ad-aware finds and removes adware and spyware. It, too, is free, but there is a "pro" version which they charge for. I use the free version.

I've been using both for a long time, and am very pleased with them.

Did you enable a firewall on your machine? I have heard that some people have problems with that, although I've used the Axiom boards through all kinds of firewalls (mostly hardware, but also the WinXP and OS X built in software firewalls).

No firewall here. Keep the ideas coming!!

Thanks

Jskip, what is in your hosts file. trying renaming hosts (no extenstion) to hosts.old, reboot and see if you can log in

Just remembered that I has a small problem when I first started posting here. I don't remember if it was EXACTLY the same problem you are having (old timers memory loss, ya know), but it turned out to be my pop-up blocker. It also blocked scripts. Once I set it to "always ALLOW pop-up/scripts from this WEB site," I had no further problems.

If you are NOT running a pop-up/script blocker, It's possible that little toolbar may have reset your security settings when it installed itself on your computer.

To find out, on the Internet Explorer toolbar (assuming that's what you use) go to Tools, Internet Options, Security. Unless you have customized your settings, the little slider should be showing a setting of "Medium."

If the little slider is not showing "Medium," You have a choice. You can reset the slider to "Medium," which will effect all your security settings. Unless you yourself have personally customized these settings, I think that's the thing to do, since that is the setting recommended by Microsoft.

Or, you can just reset only the "scripting" settings to see if that is the problem.

To do that, click on "Custom Level." Scroll down to "Scripting," and see if the 3 settings in that category are set to "enable."

If they aren't set to "enable, note what they are set to, and set them to "enable." Click "OK," "Apply," "OK," and see if that solved the problem.

If it didn't, you can go back in and reset the scripting settings the way they were, and try something else.

Hope you get this solved.

I now have several possible solutions to try tonight. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Any more thoughts????

Thanks again.

Edited my previous post. If you have any questions PM me.

Forgot to tell you. After you get to the the "Security" page, in the box at the top with the 4 choices (Internet/Local Intranet/Trusted Sites/Restricted Sites)be sure the globe with the "Internet" label is selected," otherwise you won't see a little slider, and you wonder what the #$%@ that idiot is talking about.

Peter, aren't you home yet? Where are you when we need you????????

I would definitely run Spybot before looking anywhere else. If the toolbar was the Google toolbar, that could have been blocking sites, but also would not be seen by Spybot (as it is a totally optional install, with few(?) strings attached).

And the winner of the "Why the hell can't John access the Axiom message board?" is.....the envelope please......Ajax.

Ajax, you da man!!!! I went through several of the suggestions and when I came to yours, I found a pop-up blocker. Where it came from, I don't know. I un-installed it and as Zorro's gay brother said in "Zorro the Gay Blade", "Here I am!!!"

Ajax, for winning the contest, you will receive years of outstanding music and movie enjoyment with your Axiom HT setup and of course my sincere thanks for helping me.

Thanks again, John

You're welcome John. I thought it might be something like that. It boggles the mind to think that some program, unbeknown to the computer owner, would install a pop-up blocker, or, for that matter, any other program. AARRRGGHHH! Again, I recommend Spybot, and Ad-aware to prevent any other sneaky intrusions from happening.

Glad you're back.