Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with username

Are login boxes on http:// pages secure?

mono blanco — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:39:33 -0800

Some major websites--such as Facebook, Vox and others (but not Metafilter!)--have users enter username & password on an http page rather than an https page. Is this as secure as logging in via https:// and if so, why?

How to prevent Outlook 2007 & Live Messenger from resetting username and password?

thomasck — Sun, 10 May 2009 01:07:49 -0800

Hi this problem occurs on my wife's PC where her Outlook 2007 (Gmail) & Live Messenger (Version 2009) password settings occasionally get 'reset'. It happens maybe once a month. How do I prevent this from happening? My wife saves her username and passwords to Outlook and Live Messenger so that she doesn't have to type them each time she turns on her PC. Normally when she opens up Outlook, it will start downloading emails. Same as Live Messenger. When she opens the program, it just logins automatically.

But on rare occasion when she turned on her PC, her username and password is no longer 'saved' - Live Messenger. As for Outlook, her passwords are gone, meaning she has to type them in again. Both problems happen at the same time.

I just want to know what could be causing Outlook to forget the 'passwords' and Live Messenger to completely delete her login info (both username and password). I have tried scanning her PC for viruses using Kaspersky online scan and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, but didn't pick up anything. Her PC is currently running a live subscription of Norton Internet Security 2009.

PC details:
Microsoft Windows Vista SP1
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300
4gb RAM

How do they expect to know my "real" name?

flummox — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:11:42 -0800

When attempting to register at an online forum I was repeatedly blocked when attempting to pick a username. My choices included random strings of letters and numbers. I sent a email asking what was up. The answer was that one had to register using ones "real" name... How the heck can a web admin make that determination? The only question asked previous to picking a username and pw was DOB. (Which seems a bit weird too.) Since that time I have attempted to pick a username with several plausable "real" names including my real real one and have been blocked Does this make any sense?

Logging https logins?

jmd82 — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:37:24 -0800

Logging username logins on our web server? Our current student information system (hosted on site) does not natively log user logins for administrators to see. However, we would like to do so for various reasons.
Through logging IIS (MS Server 2003) activity or some other hackery, is there any way to do so? The log on page is done over https.

We're not looking to log actual activity- only that person x logged on at time z.

How do I enable simple file sharing on Server 2008 and stop my network from crashing?

Magnakai — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 09:15:12 -0800

How do I transparently share files from a Windows Server 2008 box to several XP computers? I want it to stop asking for a username and password when people try to access files. Also, can anyone point me in the right direction to solving this weird network issue I've been having? I've been assigned to run the IT stuff for the small business that I part-time for. They have four machines running Windows XP. One of them used to host all the office documents in a shared folder, enabling it to be accessed from across the network. They're connected via brand-new Cat 6 cables going into a wireless router, which is connected via another brand-new cable to a rather ancient 4-port ADSL modem.

They now have need of a dedicated server, and because of some incoming (in the next year) custom written software, it needs to be Windows Server 2008. I built them a low-cost machine with stable components and it seems to run fine.

I hooked it up to the network, connected to current share and transferred all the office files over. I then shared that directory. I created accounts that have the same username and passwords as the default accounts on the XP machines. I gave access to the office file directory to Everyone. At the top of that screen, it specified that if you selected Everyone, it wouldn't ask for a username or password. But it does!

When they were shared from the previous workstation, you could happily access them without entering a password. Is there any way to revert to this level of behaviour?

My second question follows from this - I tried accessing the folder from one of the comptuers on the workgroup, and I then entered Administrator and the password for the server into the request box that popped up. It connects absolutely fine. But once it's connected, at regular but random intervals, it seems to hang the workstation for a period of time and kill the network connection for the server. Other computers were able to access the network and connect to the internet fine. I can reproduce this problem Can anyone give me pointers to trying to diagnose this error, as obviously it makes the whole endeavour rather useless!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, and thank you for reading this long question.

How do I pick a professional looking domain name?

dcbarker — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 07:22:25 -0800

Help me pick a professional domain name for email. All reasonable combinations of my name are already taken (the same goes for GoogleMail addresses). I'd like to avoid firstnamelastnameUK01321@googlemail.com if I can. I'm going to be using it mainly on CVs. So, because my real name (any reasonable combination of it..) is taken and I can't get my real name on GoogleMail, I'd like to pick a reasonably professional domain name (a .co.uk) to handle all of my email. That way I can just have firstname.lastname@mydomain.co.uk

The problem is.. Every domain I think of seems to sound like a lame social networking username or a dot com bubble company name. It'll be used on job applications, recruitment services and CVs. Nothing much else as I'd like to keep it separate from everything else.

I want to avoid getting a friend to forward mail from an already established domain for the same reason I'm not going to use one of my existing domains - I want a little self-contained email domain for work stuff.

I'm not so much looking for actual domain name suggestions - I'd really like advice on how to pick a suitable domain.

So, any ideas? Thanks!

Who am I?

creasy boy — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 02:12:37 -0800

What does my username mean? I think it's Turkish. It's written on the side of a building in Berlin here. I think it must mean something in Turkish. The German text underneath means wholesale textiles.

How did a strange username get into my IE7 autocomplete list?

desjardins — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 10:14:45 -0800

How did a username I've never seen before get into my IE7 autocomplete list? When I click on the "username" field on a login form in IE7, in addition to my actual usernames for various sites, there appears a name I've never seen or heard of before. I'm absolutely positive I've never searched for it or typed it (it'd be extremely difficult to type accidentally), but it is a plausible username, and to make things weirder, it's a French last name, like my username here (yes, I'm SURE I have never typed it before). I searched my hard drives for files containing this word (thinking it might be in a cookie somewhere), and came up with nothing. The username does not show up in Firefox or Safari.

I'm on Windows XP Pro, and I'm networked to my fiance's computer and my laptop. Neither of those computers have the offending username, either in their hard drives or in their autocomplete lists. No one has used my computer but me. I know my fiance hasn't used it recently, because he's been away on business. Nothing else seems missing or out of place.

Should I be worried that something's been hacked? If so, what should I check for? How else could this happen?

Could someone tell my if my door is wide open?

doctorpiorno — Tue, 15 May 2007 02:12:12 -0800

I believe the mail server associated with my domain name is acting as an open relay. Hosting company claims everything's good. How can I double-check? I'm building a website to advertise my services as a freelance translator, and to that effect I recently bought a domain name and one year's worth of web hosting at a well-known hosting company. My website is not up yet, but I have now switched all my work-related e-mail to the address associated with my new domain name.

A few days ago, a couple of my clients reported that their spam filters had mistakenly filtered out some of my messages, which worried me enough that I decided to look into possible reasons. It was then that I discovered that the SMTP server provided by my hosting company is apparently accepting all incoming connections without even requesting an username and password. I'm no expert in e-mail protocols, but if I'm not mistaken that's what's commonly called an open relay, which I understand is a very bad thing.

I immediately contacted tech support at my hosting company about this. They insisted that everything is hunky-dory and referred me to this site, which says my mail servers seem to be closed to relaying. I'm not convinced, though: right now, using PopCorn (a lightweight e-mail client), I'm consistently able to send e-mail without an username or password and using whatever "From:" and "Reply-to:" address I care to give. Again, I'm not an expert, but this doesn't look right to me.

For the record, the SMTP server will take my username and password if I bother to give one - it just seems to send the e-mail just as well if I don't. If I try to login with SSL, Outlook does warn me that "The certificate's CN name doesn't match its passed value", but it behaves normally if I choose to ignore it.

Right now I'm quite concerned about my mail server being blacklisted, used to relay spam, used to spoof my e-mail address or any combination thereof. Could the networking experts in the Hive Mind confirm whether the symptoms I have described are indeed something to be concerned about?

If this is as worrying as I have so far assumed it is, what are my options apart from switching to a different hosting provider?

Thanks in advance everyone!

God forgive me - I need to delete then retrieve a MySpace URL

skylar — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 11:47:30 -0800

If I delete a MySpace profile, and wait the stated 48 hours for the account to become inactive, can I grab the username and URL again and set up a new page with the same name? I have searched the AskMeFi archive but can't seem to find anyone who's encountered this issue. I have been asked to set up a MySpace page (God forgive me) for a music project and only after setting up the profile realised that it should have been in the music section, which seems to grant a few extra facilities special to bands.

I have already requested deletion but I have some time to make a decision, as MySpace demands that I click on a link in an e-mail to actually confirm deletion. The e-mail says: "We will cancel your account within 48 hours, after which you will no longer be able to log in. Please note that cancelled accounts may not be reactivated and all of your account information, including your friend network, will be removed from MySpace."

What it doesn't say is whether or not I (or someone else) will be able to grab the URL and username, whether it will be permanently blocked out, or whether it will be blocked out for a long time.

Can a username redirect to a subdomain?

jmevius — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 09:02:02 -0800

How would I setup a password-protected subdomain where the username is the subdomain? My levels of incompetence will be further explained, as there is I would like to have a series of subdomains setup for password protection, with the username also being the name of the subdomain.

How can I setup a single login screen that takes a given input of username/password and (if a valid username/password combination) redirects to the address http://username.domain.com/?

For what it's worth, I will be using a LAMP-style server and have the ability (but not necessarily the skill) to write .htaccess files.

Why a two-step login?

smackfu — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 09:15:51 -0800

Why are many financial institutions moving to a two-step login process, where you enter your username on one page and then your password on the next? For instance, Vanguard and ING. Their rationale is just that it's "more secure", but that's not much of a reason.

Need to access NT 2000 WS PC but don't have username/password.

thayerg — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 11:40:57 -0800

I've got a old dell laptop which, just before I retired it, I loaded up with NT 2000 workstation from a legit cd I had. And I've forgotten whichever username/password combo I cleverly used. Furthermore I can't find the orginal cd anywhere so that I could just reload the OS. Does anyone know of a way I can access this machine? I want to give it to my young daughter 'cause it's free.

Who am I, anyhow? (username autocomplete)

JMOZ — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 13:59:13 -0800

How do I autocomplete usernames (which have saved passwords) in Firefox 1.5? I recently switched the browser on my (Debian Linux) system from Mozilla (non-Firefox) to Firefox 1.5. Unfortunately, I'm missing a feature I really liked:

My wife and I both use this computer, and there are several sites we both use (gmail, bank, library, etc.) In Mozilla (the old version), it would autocomplete usernames for which there were stored passwords and allow us to select which account to use with a dialog box. Our passwords transferred over, but only if we type in the username.

For things like our library accounts, (which are just long numbers), it's a hassle to have to type them. I'm wondering if there's some way to get our autocomplete/menu back. I recognize there's a small security issue in being able to choose the username from a menu, but I'd think it's small.

I googled and looked for a Mozilla extension/Greasemonkey script, but I had no luck. Anyone have any (relatively simple) ideas? Thanks in advance.

Usernames in Windows domain (using Active Directory) and print server

mrbill — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 08:23:08 -0800

We've got a bunch of users in a Windows domain (using Active Directory) who will be renamed to a letters-and-numbers parent-company username standard in about a week. Instead of using "jsmith" or "janedoe", they'll now be known as "ABC1234" etc. (not my decision, BTW).

Is there a way to make a table or username mapping on our print server so that things sent to networked printers (all running from a common printserver host) come out with a full name or recognizable name on the cover/banner page?

Proxy-Authorization: Basic [authentication]; how do I do it?

ralawrence — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 05:21:24 -0800

I'm trying to get my application (VB, but that doesn't matter) to connect to the internet and support proxy servers that require a username and password. The former is easy, the latter not. What I'm doing is sending Proxy-Authorization: Basic [authentication] in the header (where [authentication] is "username:password" base64 encoded) with each request. However the proxy server keeps reporting error 407 (authentication required). I've read the RFC's, I've read google groups but I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. Any ideas?

setting username variable with Win95/98

dogwelder — Mon, 01 Mar 2004 15:31:47 -0800

Is this the easiest way to set the username variable with Win95/98?

Blogger Errors

anastasiav — Sun, 11 Jan 2004 17:01:54 -0800

blogger woes: I've been trying publish (for the very first time) via Blogger, but every single time I press 'publish' I get the same error - "There Were Errors in Publishing. dk.eos.net.FtpError: Login incorrect." I know for a fact that the ftp username and password Im using are correct, so what the heck am I doing wrong?? I've been fidding with this for over an hour and I'm losing my mind!! I thought Blogger was supposed to be easy!