I was helping a fellow DotNetNuke.com member tonight trying to diagnose an interesting issue.  We can install DNN on his machine just fine.  However after installation he is NEVER able to login via IE or FireFox.  If we navigate to the site via IIS we can login correctly.

When logging in from IE or FireFox (By going to http://localhost/DNNTest2/ which is the virtual directory path) we are able to get to the login page, then input the information and click "Login" and get back to the homepage.  Also at times IE will hang at this point and never load the page.

I have diagnosed and done the following and we have not been able to find the root cause.

-Installed a fresh copy of DNN
-Ensured all file permissions were correct
-Ensured that IE and Firefox were configured to allow cookies
-Cleared all cookies and cache to ensure that no bad information existed from the past
-Debugged the .NET solution and noticed that ALL code was executed with no errors
-Doublechecked all portal alias entries
-Ensured that compression was not turned on
-Tested with incorrect login details and noticed that it did authenticate

The other thing we tried was to check the "Remember Login" button via the IIS view which is the only place we are able to login.  This allows us to see the admin fuctionality when in IE but only for a limited time and not all functionality is available.

We have also tried this with a regular user account and the same thing happens with it. 

The machine is a Windows XP Pro Machine using SQL Server 2000 MSDE version, there is no ObjectQualifier on the db and no errors in the eventlog.  Does anyone have any idea?  This one has me totally stumped!

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-Mitchel Sellers
Microsoft MVP, ASPInsider, DNN MVP
CEO/Director of Development - IowaComputerGurus Inc.


Visit mitchelsellers.com for my mostly DNN Blog and support forum.

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I have exactly the same problem, so there must be some interference from SharePoint..?? This is an installation on a server where previously version 3.2.2 worked fine - this one was autoinstalled in Plesk. When I tried to upgrade to 3.5.7 I got errors, and could not work out what was wrong - the installer ran the upgrade, showed the "Access Your Portla" hyperlink and then I got errors when I went there...
To make my life easier I did not worry too much and just ran an autoinstall again - it worked OK again into 3.2.2 only, and now I cannot login. Correct login takes me to Home page with no user account displayed, incorrect login shows ther error - exactly as described by you! Maybe someone has a clue how to get around it..?

Just thinking out loud here but:

1. Have you noticed any different behavior if you connect to the DNN site first after a server/machine reboot?

2. How about adding the site to the Trusted Sites in the IE security settings?

3. What are your settings for caching inside of IE?  You know, the "Check for newer version of ..." parameter.

4. Do you have any software firewall software running on the client PC?  Just to test, turn it off, close all browser windows and try again.

5. Did you notice any changes in the login behavior after applying any service packs from Microsoft?

Basically, I have run into a lot of strange security problems with dynamic sites, not exclusive to DNN, whenever the security of the client's PC is tightened.  And service packs tend to do that to you.

Carlos