PHP switching sessions

[Slav]

Hello,

I am using multiple instances of IE on the same machine to test a web
site I've created. The web site can be accessed by multiple user type
each with different access rights (e.g. Admin and User). Sometimes
what I see happening is that the User session switchs to Admin session
and vice versa. The web server is using cookies to communicate session
info and I thought this should be relatively foolproof. Any ideas how
to prevent this from happening? Thanks in advance,

Slav

[Slav]

Re: PHP switching sessions

OK, what you write makes sense. However, at work I am using the same
type of setup. A user is authenticated, a session is started and the
user can navigate through the online application. At work, I can have
multiple IE browsers open and during the last 2 years, never have I
seen the problem of the session switching between users. Even on my
own application, I do not see this problem every time. It happens
every so often. Meaning I had as many as 4 IE windows open connecting
to my on-line application and never saw a switch. Then it happens out
of the blue. Now the differences between my work application and
private application:
Work: Linux running Apache with a https sessions
Home: Windows XP running Apache with no security

Thanks again,

Slav

Michael Vilain wrote:[color=blue]
> In article <1136346431.043 985.98160@g43g2 000cwa.googlegr oups.com>,[color=green]
> > Slav[/color]
>
> If I understand your situation, if IE is running on the same machine
> with the same IP address and user, I don't see a way to do what you're
> trying to accomplish--separate instances using the same browser. Now,
> if you have two different browsers (say, IE and FireFox), that would
> probably work as cookies are usually stored in separate places. Or use
> separate user accounts (if your OS allows multiple logins) as the cookie
> files are in different directories. But the web server (and php) has no
> way to distinguish connections coming from the same machine. Only the
> client browser differentiates that. So, unless you use a different
> user, browser, or machine, you're pretty much stuck with the behavior
> you see.
>
> --
> DeeDee, don't press that button! DeeDee! NO! Dee...[/color]

[Slav]

Re: PHP switching sessions

Well, it's not that simple. The web server, at work, is running PHP on
Linux but I'm accessing it through multiple IEs all on a Windows
machine. My pet theory is that the secure connection somehow allows
the server to differentiate between the multiple IE instances.
Initially I thought it had something to do with the cookies sent by the
server to the browser. 1 basic thing I would like to know is if you
have n IE instances open on the same machine connected to the same
server using PHP session, do you get n cookies or just 1? If it's 1
then it would make sense that the browsers get confused.... Thanks.