FAQ 0004Why does the PPD log-in sometimes ask me for my password twice?
When entering a password-protected web site for the first time, you will occasionally notice that you are asked for your password twice. This may happen immediately after you entered the password the first time, or it may happen when you click on the first link after authenticating the first time.
This happens for a very simple, but nonetheless confusing, reason, again having to do with the way that the browser caches the log-in information.
Log-in information is stored on the browser based on the authentication realm, specified by the AuthName directive, and by the server name. In this way, the browser can distinguish between the Private authentication realm on one site and on another. So, if you go to a site using one name for the server, and internal links on the server refer to that server by a different name, the browser has no way to know that they are in fact the same server.
For example, if you were to visit the URL http://usncva.org/private/, which required authentication, your browser would remember the supplied username and password, associated with the hostname usncva.org. If, by virtue of an internal redirect, or fully-qualified HTML links in pages, you are then sent to the URL http://www.usncva.org/private/, even though this is really exactly the same URL, the browser does not know this for sure, and is forced to request the authentication information again, since usncva.org and www.usncva.org are not exactly the same hostname. Your browser has no particular way to know that these are the same web site.
See also:
- How do I get access to the NID and NCVA Members Only files?
- Why does my log-in fail when trying to access password protected directory (PPD) files?
- How do I report a PPD problem?
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Last Modified: Thursday, 30-Jul-2009 10:08:57 EDT