Question

I have a problem with the TWIKIUSERNAME on our TWiki installation.

Naturally, when I first start my browser and navigate the TWiki, my username is TWikiGuest.

Once I want to edit, I am being asked to authenticate, and the pages I edit are also shownto be edited by MathiasKoerber, however, if I put %WIKIUSERNAME% into some topics, reading those pages does not show me as MathiasKoerber, but still as TWikiGuest.

So in effect, I read all pages as TWikiGuest and edit all pages as MathiasKoerber, even though I had to authenticate only once.

This does not seem to happen here in Twiki.org, so I assume that itmust be something with our installation (No, I do not have filesystem access to that machine at present).

Has anyone seen this problem before and could point out potential mistakes during the installation.

PS: We also have a problem with TWikiRegistration in that the registration process hangs and never finishes (and ultimately times out with the server closing the connection). Nonetheless the users seem to be registered. I wonder however if some tasks tha registration performs may not be completed and create this identity problem I am seeing.

• TWiki version: 03 August 2002
• Web server:
• Server OS:
• Web browser:
• Client OS:

-- MathiasKoerber - 05 Sep 2002

Answer

* I've seen the same before on my TWiki installation. Don't know how to fix it yet. This is a show stopper for the usage of TWiki in our project, so please let me know once a solution is known.

-- MichaelAtighetchi - Sep 6 2002

Read TWikiUserAuthentication#Partial_Authentication

-- PeterThoeny - 06 Sep 2002

I read this paragraph. However, it is not clear to me why the save script is not properly authenticated, while the view script is. Is there something I can tell my sys-admin to change in the httpd.conf file ? We are using a recent apache version.

-- MichaelAtighetchi - Sep 6 2002

Ok, our sys-admin has fixed this issue. Here is what he had to say about it: The <LIMIT> directive was limited to GET's , probably picked up along the way from my habit of cutting and pasting older sections that are simliar. I just stuck PUT and POST in to the website area. I saw from the logs that the username disappeared anytime it was time to do a POST.

-- MichaelAtighetchi - Sep 6 2002

I might be wrong, but it might be related to variable $doRememberRemoteUser from lib/TWiki.cfg

#                   Remember remote user by matching the IP address
#                   in case REMOTE_USER is empty. Default "0"
#                   (Note: Does not work reliably with dynamic IP addresses)
$doRememberRemoteUser = "0";

-- PeterMasiar - 09 Sep 2002

Can you elaborate on where you had to make changes to the <LIMIT> directive? I have the same problems on my installation and haven't been able to fix it yet.

-- CharlesLacz - 09 Sep 2002

I was having problems with my ISP and authentication. Reading through this post I came upon the information above. I placed the tag

<Limit PUT POST GET>
    require valid-user
</Limit>

in my cgi-bin/.htaccess file (the one copied into place from twiki/bin/.htaccess.txt) and it seems to have solved my problem.

later Spoke too soon. It fixed the TransientAuthentication but now wants authentication even with view.

-- LannyRipple - 20 Apr 2003

The TWikiUserAuthentication doc is now updated, see section "Authentication Options".

-- PeterThoeny - 22 Apr 2003

The note about

<Limit></Limit>

-- DmitryDiskin - 10 Jul 2003