Session Timeout Problem

[PWNettle]

Howdy,

 

I'm having a problem where my sessions are timing out even though I'm using pages that are seemingly involved in the session constantly during the timeout period. It's as if the session is initiated when a page is first hit but then the session is never extended by subsequent page hits...the session will timeout after a certain time period (seems like 20 minutes even with the timeout set higher in web.config)

 

What's the trick to getting the session to be extended by subsequent page hits rather than expiring based on the time of the initial page hit?

 

Why does it seem like setting a (much) higher timeout value in web.config seems to have no effect on session duration?

 

Any ideas?

 

Paul

[Derek Stone]

Are cookies enabled on your machine?

Are the pages within the same application?

Is session state enabled on those pages in question?

Are you using Forms Authentication?

If/when is the cookie set to expire in your browser's cache?

 

I hate to throw out basic questions such as those to you Paul but I haven't encountered any problems in using session state within ASP.NET, so I can only think of checking the simple things that we all overlook.

[PWNettle]

Oh, I'm thinking it's something simple and don't mind basic questions.

 

I'm just starting with .Net and kind of jumping into it and hacking around without much of a clue.

 

We use cookies and sessions in our 'old fashioned' ASPs and I have no problems with them there.

 

I'm using IIS5 on Windows 2000 with all Windows, IE, .Net, etc updates in place.

 

Are cookies enabled on your machine? Definitely

 

Are the pages within the same application? Yes

 

Is session state enabled on those pages in question?

I've got this in system.web in my web.config file:

 

<sessionState 
           mode="InProc"
           cookieless="false" 
           timeout="120" 
   />

 

Are you using Forms Authentication?

Not sure...being the Dotnoob that I am. In web.config's system.web I have:

 

<authentication mode="Windows" />

 

If/when is the cookie set to expire in your browser's cache? Chances are that I've messed with this in some way...but not sure exactly what/where to check.

 

I've searched MSDN and looked at MSDN and Knowledge base online and the only thing I found had to do with background anit-virus software running. I'd be happy to read all about setting this up properly myself if such documentation exists in MSDN. I haven't been able to find it myself.

 

Thanks,

Paul

[Derek Stone]

We use cookies and sessions in our 'old fashioned' ASPs and I have no problems with them there.

I'm taking a huge leap here, but are you trying to read the same session state object from both ASP and ASP.NET pages? This, I assure you, will not work without some doing, but I'm inclined to think this still isn't your problem. I'm otherwise stumped as to why you can't get sessions working. If you post all the relevant files I'd be willing to go over them to make sure they aren't the problem.

[PWNettle]

No, we already know we can't use sessions between ASP and .Net.

 

I'm thinking I'll have to do some more reading when time permits on ASP.Net application setup and config. I'm sure it's something very simple.

 

Thanks for your input.

 

Cheers,

Paul