Can no longer login to forums using Firefox

tomeworm

A couple days ago I found that I wasn't able to login to the forums. So I restarted Firefox with all add-ons disabled. Still no joy. I then assumed the issue was that PIA had disabled login because they were doing some forum maintenance over the holiday weekend.

Then this morning I tried logging in with Safari and presto! No issues. 

There appears to have suddenly developed an incompatibility between these forums and Firefox. Could this have something to do with the release of Quantum? Seems doubtful. 

Mac OS X Sierra 10.12.6 
Firefox 56.0.2

[Deleted User]

@tomeworm I have trouble (with signing up) with these forums on Tor Browser (firefox), might be related. Login works, but signups didn't. Anyway, the forum is in the process of changing so I guess this has to be filed under #wontfix

Omnibus_IV

I had issues with my Firefox, but on other sites. I ended up deleting the prefs.js file, restarted Firefox and all worked well again. I did have to redo my preferences, but that was better that doing a total reset of Firefox.

Not sure why, but sometimes the prefs.js file gets corrupted and needs to be replaced. So what I have started doing is saving a copy of my prefs.js file. If it gets corrupted again, I just delete the bad one and paste the copy of the old one in its place.

PiaVipper

Just for info, I beleive you need to over-write the prefs file with Firefox closed.

Omnibus_IV

Yeah, what ^^^ PiaVipper said.

tomeworm

Turned out to be a cookies issue/confilict. Deleting all the privateinternetaccess cookies in Firefox cleared the problem. PIA creates a massive number of cookies that seem to never expire. I counted over 40 of them. Rather worrisome to me that a privacy-oriented company would be creating so many cookies when visiting their web site. Why all the detritus, PIA?

@sn0wmonster

[Deleted User]

@tomeworm I tried the forum in Lynx and I only counted 4 cookie requests, all of them being Vanilla-forums functionality related. (On that note, we're in the process of changing the forums.)

I imagine if I used a JS-enabled browser, I might get a few from Google as well.

Did you notice the creation dates on the cookies? Is it possible that the cookies were being regenerated for different sessions and just didn't get removed/expire and that's why you had 40? I don't understand how it would be generating 40 cookies. I'll hold off on escalating to tech support until I can get your response, but you've definitely got my attention! *hates cookies*

tomeworm

@sn0wmonster No, unfortunately I discovered this early this morning before my morning coffee. Didn't think to go through each one to check dates. I'll be keeping on eye on this and report back further if I notice anything amiss again.

[Deleted User]

@tomeworm ; I see. I'll just ask to web what cookies we are aware of being served then and hopefully write something up for release as I think that's the smartest way to go about it anyway for a privacy focused service. Understand that might wait until after the forum changes for obvious reasons.

Also, 3.0 is out! https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/11/panopticlick-30

Full disclaimer: using this service literally tracks you as part of its functionality!

Max-P

@sn0wmonster, @tomeworm Yeah, the forum uses Google Analytics and Google's recaptcha sadly. I'm only counting 14 of them however with only 7 of them not being bound to the current session. 40 seems a bit excessive, there might be some old scripts that generated those that are no longer on the site but the cookies remains...

tomeworm

I've been using these forums, as well as the PIA web site, for about 2-1/2 years. I suspect in that time I've picked up a lot of cookies here, cookies which apparently never expired. Not cool for a privacy-oriented web site.

This experience prompted me to be more mindful of cookies. With the typical browser it's an all or nothing deal. You can either forget about them and go for convenience, or you can elect for them to be deleted every time you  quit your browser. I chose the convenience of not having to re-log back in to my email accounts, re-verify my computer to bank accounts, etc. Not the secure option, I know. But what a PITA otherwise.

A little research today culminated in my installing Cookie. Super easy to configure and whitelist only those few cookies you really do need. The rest are deleted, including supercookies, on browser quitting or even on a timer. So far it's working great.

PiaVipper

Firefox comes with the feature to clear cookies (and other garbage) on every shutdown, so simply enable that! (settings > privacy).  Personally I never accept third party cookies, anyway.
In that menu you can also "Clear history when Firefox closes" - I check all the boxes.

You could also install the add-on Disconnect (or similar) to cut the third party rubbish.

tomeworm

PiaVipper said:

Firefox comes with the feature to clear cookies (and other garbage) on every shutdown, so simply enable that! (settings > privacy).  Personally I never accept third party cookies, anyway.
In that menu you can also "Clear history when Firefox closes" - I check all the boxes.

You could also install the add-on Disconnect (or similar) to cut the third party rubbish.

I'm aware of all this. As I'd already articulated, Firefox cookies options are rather limited. Your recommendation may work for you, but it isn't a viable one for me, and probably not viable for many other people too.

I also use Disconnect, which does a commendable, but not perfect, job. If what I'd been running had been a viable solution I never would have found myself in this predicament in the first place. But then I count it all as a blessing in disguise. It compelled me to dig a little deeper.