Your opinion please on protecting galleries . . .

Peter

I have been using password protection on some of my galleries. Then just found out that some cannot use the password but get no error message. I was told by support that it is probably due to the user's cookie settings . . .

. . . well, the problem is that some of the 'users' are quite computer challenged and the mention of adusting their cookie settings throws them off. Yup, actually scares them away . . . lol.

Support suggested that I might use sharegroups instead of password protection.

So I ask your opinion. What do you use to secure your private galleries? And why? I am curious and open to suggestions. If there is a strong indication that password protection is the best then I guess I need to instruction all my guests about cookie management. I just really wish there was something on my password page that would tell people why the password doesn't work instead of just the same log in screen appearing . . . ugghhh!

Thanks gang . .

Peter

flyingpylon

Peter wrote:

I just really wish there was something on my password page that would tell people why the password doesn't work instead of just the same log in screen appearing . . . ugghhh!

I don't use password-protected galleries so I can't offer any suggestions there. But if people really don't get any kind of error message when their login fails, that's just poor user interface design (not to mention surprising) and smugmug should fix it.

Allen

ShareGroups
I tried password protected galleries but find ShareGroup basically does the same thing. Look at the name of the gallery for a sharegroup. It's 12 charaters long with both small and large case letters. I can't imagine anyone figuring it out. They would have to have the exact link. Plus it remains as a link when they return to your home page for two weeks I think then dissapears.

Peter

Thanks for your responses Allen and FP . . .

I have tried the sharegroups but would rather have a simple url that people can easily recall.

I talked to support regarding having a cookie error message appear on failed password entries. They said they are working on it . . .

In the meantime, think I need to create a front page on my own personal website that has a link to the smugmug galleries. And in the front page explain what to do with cookie settings should an error occur.

Thanks again.

Peter

onethumb

Peter wrote:

Thanks for your responses Allen and FP . . .

I have tried the sharegroups but would rather have a simple url that people can easily recall.

I talked to support regarding having a cookie error message appear on failed password entries. They said they are working on it . . .

In the meantime, think I need to create a front page on my own personal website that has a link to the smugmug galleries. And in the front page explain what to do with cookie settings should an error occur.

Thanks again.

Peter

Just to be clear, there *is* a message that's displayed when we detect that their cookies aren't set up properly. There has been for a long long time.

If they're not seeing that message, there may be something else going wrong, or we may have a scenario that we haven't seen before. Either are possible.

For the record, all modern browsers have cookies in the proper setting on when they are first installed by default. Someone has to be technically-savvy to set them to a setting that breaks smugmug. (Or some other strange event has to happen, such as a virus or trojan modifying their settings without their knowledge).

I can look into it more closely if you'd like, but I should warn you that thousands of people use the passworded galleries every day, and we don't hear about problems with it, so the issue is likely not our fault. No harm in double-checking that it's not our fault, though.

Don

Peter

onethumb wrote:

Just to be clear, there *is* a message that's displayed when we detect that their cookies aren't set up properly. There has been for a long long time. . . If they're not seeing that message, there may be something else going wrong, or we may have a scenario that we haven't seen before. Either are possible. Don

Thanks Don,

A bit of history here. I had 3 different people trying to access my webpage using the password supplied. All on the same day. All emailed me to tell me the password was not working and that only the log in screen appeared, nothing else. I emailed support and was told that maybe the individuals entered the password incorrectly. I responded by saying, nope and that I in fact had stepped someone over the phone on the proper entry. Same thing still, no entry allowed and no message of any kind.

Support emailed me back and said that if a user enters the password, and then the log in screen reappears, without messages, then it would likely be a cookie problem. So then I had one of my users adjust their cookie setting, and bingo, they got in.

Support emailed me again, saying that the situation was being looked into.

Bottom line, my understanding is that Smugmug is aware that in some cases users who do not have their cookie settings at the right setting, may receive the log in screen again, with no error message.

Thanks again,

Peter

ginger_55

Peter wrote:

. . . well, the problem is that some of the 'users' are quite computer challenged and the mention of adusting their cookie settings throws them off. Yup, actually scares them away . . . lol.

Thanks gang . .

Peter

I am computer challenged re cookies. AOL allows you to turn them off. AGGGHHH. I set it back to allow cookies, but I quiver everytime some site says that I have to allow cookies. I never know what my computer is going to do, sometimes I think it sets itself.

So, tell me please, what do you mean "adjust cookie settings"?

That is a scary thought for me, but what do you mean, so I could tell people.

ginger

Peter

Hi Ginger . . .

You can go here and read up on cookies:

http://www.howstuffworks.com/cookie.htm


You don't need to get too concerned about cookies Ginger. After reading the above information, you will see that sometimes they can benefit us, and at other times they are annoying.

In the case of Smugmug, it benefits the user. Cookies help to keep some information about where you have been on the net. So in the case of passwords, once a person enters a gallery using that password, they can access other galleries using the same password on i.e., my.smugmug.com without constantly re-entering the password. In such a case, that is a very handy cookie function . . .

Hope that made a bit of sense :-)

Take care,

Peter