Happy Hour: Authentication Failed in chat at midnight.
A lot of people have been messaging me about this. There is a bug that means, during BST (British Summer Time), when the UK is one hour ahead of GMT, you will not be able to enter chat between Midnight (BST) and 1 AM (BST).
During this time, you will get "authentication failed" if you try to enter chat. If you are already in chat you will not be kicked but if you are disconnected you will not be able to re-enter until 1am BST.
This bug is caused by the server running on BST and chat running on GMT so it thinks you are trying to enter chat using the wrong day's code.
It doesn't matter where you come from; it matters where you go.
No-one gets remembered for the things they didn't do.
We won't all be here this time next year,
so while you can take a picture of us.
We're definitely going to hell,
but we'll have all the best stories to tell.
I am currently getting a message saying Authentication Failed. We need to find a solution to this problem, as it could cause problems if someone were in crisis and couldn't get into the chat room.
There appears not to be a solution to the problem; the server runs on BST. We can't change that because it's not owned by RYL. The chat software/site(?) runs on GMT which is owned by an external company, and again we can't changed.
It's to do with the URL that is created when you click 'enter chat'. It generates a unique code for each member that is valid for a single day up until 12 midnight (BST). Between midnight and 1am when you click 'enter chat' it gives you yesterday's code - and then the authentication fails because it knows it's the wrong day.
It doesn't matter where you come from; it matters where you go.
No-one gets remembered for the things they didn't do.
We won't all be here this time next year,
so while you can take a picture of us.
We're definitely going to hell,
but we'll have all the best stories to tell.
Just wanted to echo Carmen. I know people use chat for support which is fine, but chat isn't a crisis service. If you feel unsafe then please contact organisations in your country which do provide a crisis service (eg the samaritans in the UK, ringing the emergency services, going to hospital).
Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes but when you look back, everything is different…
you once called your brain a hard drive, well say hello to the virus.
Just a follow up to this thread to let you know that we are very much aware of the time zone issue that effects RealChat.
The time zone and time syncing on both servers is absolutely correct but, probably due to a bug in RealChat (which is now discontinued by the developer), it doesn't take note of the time zone on the server it is running on.
I'll try to have a further look at this over the next 24hrs or so to see if there is any further solution we can implement.
I think the issue is our end rather than chat - it's sending emails on GMT, like Birthday emails which come through at 1am BST (12 GMT) in the summer, and at Midnight in the winter.
It doesn't matter where you come from; it matters where you go.
No-one gets remembered for the things they didn't do.
We won't all be here this time next year,
so while you can take a picture of us.
We're definitely going to hell,
but we'll have all the best stories to tell.
Thanks for the suggestion as to the cause, it really is very much appreciated. Confusingly Linux cronjobs (which kick off emailing etc.) are actually set to run on UTC time serials and so they are not affected by GMT/BST changes.
Our server time is correct and always has been, as is our 'PHP time' which is the time the code RYL runs would use.
The Mindsweeper and I actually independently came up with a suggested fix - he very kindly PMed me to make the suggestion so I do want to give credit here.
The fix is now in place for the chat code but we will need to see whether this resolves it.
If anyone has a chance to post back on this thread and let me know if this is fixed I'd really appreciate it. If I'm still awake tonight (doubtful!) I'll try to login to chat later after midnight to see if it's resolved.
Thanks for the feedback everyone and again thank you to The Mindsweeper for the kindly PMing some insightful input on this.