AOL Session State Lost on Load Balanced Web Farm C# ASP.Net 2.0

[spoonybard]

Hi Everyone,

We have a C# ASP.Net 2.0 web application that is running on 2 load balancing servers. Using Internet Explorer 6.0/7.0, Firefox, Safari, etc... there are no problems with the sessions. However, using AOL, the sessions get dropped because of the proxy servers AOL uses. Can anyone point us in the right direction on how to maintain the session state by possibly using GUID's or some other method.

Thanks.

[Plater]

The session gets passed as a special header in the query and response in HTTP.
If AOL (do people really still use that company??) blocks some header-types, it might not make it through.
I suspect there is a setting in the AOL client somewhere that is telling it to ignore that header and not pass it back.

[spoonybard]

Is there a way to programatically view the headers aol is using or is there a way I can programatically change the headers myself?

[Plater]

You should be able to see the headers using some javascript controls, but what you should look at is the settings of the aol client I think.

You can pick up Ethereal or any other network packet viewer if you really wanna get in deep to see what traffic is being passed, but it might be overkill for this.

[spoonybard]

The following are a list of settings that I found within AOL 9.0 VR:

1) Web Graphics Compression

1. Compress only for low-speed connections
2. Always compress
3. Never compress
4. turn on maximum compression

2) Use your Internet Explorer settings to set advanced browser options. (This pops up the typical IE Options tabbed window)
3) Use AOL Wallet preferences to store purchase info
4) Use Parental Controls to help protect children
5) Pop-Up Controls to block unwanted pop-ups


With option 2, if there was anything wacky set in there, the web page would not work in IE, but it does work in IE.

Am I missing another area that has settings or is this it?

Thanks.

[Plater]

Hmm, I am wholly unaware of what AOL does. Like I said I wasn't aware it was still used.
(Honestly, I've been using the internet for roughly 12 years and never seen anyone use it. Guess it wasn't popular in my area)
You could check with the packet watching software, to verify that the header is or is not being sent.