Already Logged In

[lindseyb]

I'm running in Anonymous mode. Every couple of months the system starts telling users they are already logged in but they aren't. Nothing I do seems to reset their connection.....deleting all entries in the servers ARP table, deletign the MAC address and lease from the windows DHCP server. The one thing I have found that works is deleting the lease and restarting the server then having the client perform ipconfig release and renew. Any thoughts?

[alan]

According to our record, you are using v2.

Are you using IP-based session handling? Note that you should use MAC-based session handling unless you have a router between the client PC and FirstSpot.

Restarting FirstSpot and do a ipconfig/release and ipconfig/renew is a workaround that should solve your problem. The reasons for this problem to occur is rather complicated. I suggest:

1) you use MAC-based session handling if possible
2) try v3. The new version has a more robust DHCP server and IP-based session handling, which will potentially solve your problem.
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~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[lindseyb]

I am using MAC address based session handling. I am not using the built in DHCP server. I am using Windows DHCP. Is there a way to clear this "hung" session without stopping and starting the app? I'd rather not interrupt service for all my users for one device. I have tried deleting the dhcp lease record for the device and that still doesn't seem to do any good.

[alan]

If you use MAC-based session handling, there is no need to do a ipconfig/release and ipconfig/renew in your workaround. You just need to restart FirstSpot.

Your problem occurs because the idle timeout is not working as expected. Note that the user must disconnect completely or otherwise FirstSpot won't kick him out (sometimes a standby mode computer will still send out network packets, which will prevent FirstSpot from triggering the idle timeout mechanism).

Also, note that if the particular machine "revisit" the hotspot too soon. He can still get access since FirstSpot has not timeout him yet. You can alleviate this situation somewhat by setting idle timeout setting to a smaller value (say 5 minutes).
_________________
~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[lindseyb]

None of this seems to work. Today we deleted all text from two .dbf files and that finally let the the user through. I believe the two files were fsa.dbf and fsinst.dbf. Any idea why?