News:

Yahoo Groups closing on Dec 14th 2019

Main Menu

"Invalid page format" after using Yahoo security feature at login

Started by wapfinator, October 23, 2010, 08:13:59 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

wapfinator

Hi,

Yahoo has a new feature in the web login.  It's a security feature resembling a captcha, sort of.   
It might not be that new but I'd never seen it before.

Anyway this feature is optional, but against my better judgment, I incorporated it into my web login.  It didn't work very well (gave error message some of the time), so I removed it and went back to the regular web login.  All seemed well.  But right after that, PGO worked for only a few groups.  It gives "Invalid page format" for about 90% of my groups... tested every one of about 50 groups. 

This is using v3.0.084 on Windows XP.

I can't prove that messing with the login caused this problem, only note the correlation in time...

Also I can't do a "Get Groups List" as it gives invalid page format.

Thanks....

Debby

ps- That was about a month ago.  I've waited a while to see if things would improve now that the furor over Yahoo remodeling has died down, to see if that had anything to do with it. But the problem persists.  On another hunch, I made a list of which of my groups were switched to "social" or remained on "classic" vs. which groups PGO could or couldn't access, but there seemed to be no correlation. 

Wilson Logan

Hi Debby,

Its reasonably certain that the groups you cannot access are the private groups. This will be because PGO cannot login.

I would recommend that you clear your IE cache (Tools--> Internet Options--> Browsing History), close IE, restart IE and login to Yahoo groups normally, close IE and then start PG Offline.

Cheers,

Wilson.

wapfinator

Hi Wilson,

Quote from: Wilson Logan on October 24, 2010, 10:45:58 AM
Its reasonably certain that the groups you cannot access are the private groups.
Yes! this is true.

QuoteI would recommend that you clear your IE cache (Tools--> Internet Options--> Browsing History), close IE, restart IE and login to Yahoo groups normally, close IE and then start PG Offline.
Did this, but no joy on either of two different computers, one with IE7 and one with IE8, both with Windows XP-SP3 and PGO v3.0.084...

Debby

Wilson Logan

Hmmm... strange.

Can you email me with the names of a couple of groups that do work and a couple that don't work for you.

wilson (at) wilsonlogan.com

Cheers,

Wilson.

wapfinator


wapfinator

Hi Wilson,

Progress. After some futzing around, here is what DOES work:

1. Open IE and log in to Yahoo with my NEW password [note*], at https://login.yahoo.com/config/login_verify2?

2. Open PGO with the following settings:
   a. Master Login set back to my OLD password.
   b. Skip Authorization = checked.

3. Success. No more IPF now on Receive Groups, Refresh All Groups, Get Groups List; for public AND private groups.

I don't understand, but am glad to have found this workaround.  It's strange that (1) my old password is still operative in PGO but not at Yahoo's web login, and that (2) if Skip Authorization is checked, that the password in Master Login would have any effect, but it does.

Hope this helps you.

Debby

* Sorry, I meant to mention, in my original message, that Yahoo had forced me to change my password, at the time of changing the security settings.

wapfinator

OK, more clarification....

Nevermind #2a in my last message, about using the old password.  That was a red herring.  Just forget all about that. 

The critical factor is whether I'm logged in to Yahoo via the web, or not.

Things are working now as long as
(1) I'm first logged in to Yahoo via IE
(2) Skip Authorization is checked. (If Skip Authorization is checked, then the Master Login password set in PGO doesn't matter)

It would be nice to not have to log in to Yahoo via IE. To that end, I've tried clearing cookies, browsing history, repeatedly, without luck.
Maybe it's something I'm still doing wrong so I'll play around some more, but at least things are working once again with my groups!

Debby

Wilson Logan

Hi Debby,

  PG Offline allows you to have different Master & group level passwords.

  Whatever you set your Master password to, every group thereafter uses that password *but* groups added before you changed your password still use the old password.

If you want old groups to use the new password you will need to right click on each group, choose Group Settings--> Group Logon and change the password in that dialogue.

Cheers,

Wilson.

wapfinator

Hi Wilson,

Reporting in after all this time...

Things are back to normal, that is, I no longer need to be logged in via IE, to use PGO on every group.

This was accomplished by changing every Group-level password to my NEW yahoo password (Master password) - as per your suggestion.

A belated thank you for this help.

Just curious, are there special circumstances when the group-level password would be different from the Master password?  It is nice to have the feature there, but I'm wondering when it would be used.  Thanks and Happy New Year :)

Debby

wapfinator

Quote from: Wilson Logan on October 31, 2010, 11:09:14 PM
Whatever you set your Master password to, every group thereafter uses that password *but* groups added before you changed your password still use the old password.

Meant to add... the above was not the case for my groups added before the password change. They were not accessible under the old password.. well, except for the public groups, which would be accessible anyway.  The old groups required the new password too.

Manfred

The problem I reported under the subject "ERROR" was solved with the tactic used here...It actually makes no sense so perhaps a code change is in order.

I changed my YH password due to possible hijack of my email - a precaution. After that I changed the MASTER LOGIN at PGO

Thats when all my troubles began... some groups loading and other reporting IPF.

So it appears that changing the Master Password does not do what one would think it does. I also had to go to every group that reported IPF and change its individial login info.

This is not documented or explained anywhere that I can discover.

Wilson Logan

Hi Manfred,

The expected behaviour of the Master Login/Group Login duo is that the Master Login is a default setting from which the Group Logon is set when you add a new group.

If you have two or more Yahoo logins then you can change the specific Group Login information for that group if it is not the same as the Master Login.

You changed the Master Login which only changes what *new* Group Logins will be set to. It does not change existing Group Logins.

BTW this information is in the Help file under Housekeeping--> Master Login:

Master Login

This option allows you to change the default username & password which will be used to access all of your groups.

If any one of your groups requires a username & password which are different from this Master username & password then you need to highlight the group name & choose Groups-> Group Settings Here you can change the login details for a group on an individual basis.
 

Manfred

Hi Wilson, Thanks

What you describe is NOT what the Help File says.

"You changed the Master Login which only changes what *new* Group Logins will be set to. It does not change existing Group Logins."

...is not the same as...

"This option allows you to change the default username & password which will be used to access all of your groups."

The help file should be corrected.

Regards -

Manfred

Also - none of what you say explains why only SOME groups do in fact take on the new password and load correctly while others do not.

I did not add any 'new' groups. I had a list of groups all prexisting under the original password. Changed the master password and some failed and some did not.

That behavior is not consistant with what you are saying, I understand that any NEW group list will certainly take on the ID of the NEW password. But thats not the situation here.

Wilson Logan

Hi Manfred,

The intended functionality is that new groups take their login information from the Master Login settings.

As a test I changed my Master Login password and attempted a refresh. I have 'Skip Authorization' unchecked so PG Offline does a separate login for each group using that groups login details.

As expected, despite changing the Master Login, all 12 groups which require membership refreshed correctly.

This also explains why, when you changed your Master Login details, none of your groups would load. To change the groups passwords you need to go back and change each one individually. Master Login has no effect on group login, once it has been set.

Having re-read the Help entry I can see that it is a little ambiguous.  Rather than saying:

"This option allows you to change the default username & password which will be used  to access all of your groups."

I should maybe say:

"This option allows you to set the default username & password which will be used to populate the individual Group Login details, when you add a new group"

So, yes, I think you're correct!  :)

Cheers,

Wilson.








SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk