Ancestry Logout Problem

[mkmurray]

Yea, I noticed that when I did a DNS search. That's why I'm suspicious as to that being the block. I suspect that a cookie is being placed on the user's site when they logon and that cookie is cleared upon logout. Why it only fails upon logout I don't know.

I did a little experimenting a couple of days ago when I was having problems in logging out. I ran a clean-up program that I use to remove cookies, and other privacy items. Although Ancestry didn't log me out, clearing these privacy items DID.

I wonder if the firewall block list includes Omniture in the OK list, but this obscure domain is not one that I would think to unblock as well.

[techgy]

I wonder if the firewall block list includes Omniture in the OK list, but this obscure domain is not one that I would think to unblock as well.

After a brief review of the Omniture site I'm no longer sure that they're the problem. They offer an "opt-out" feature on their site that prohibits the placement of a cookie for tracking. Also according to their policy they're only purpose is tracking. As their URL is the final one in a list of URL's being used for the logout, the actual logout must be occuring before the Omniture URL is seen. If the Omniture site was being block, this might hold up the browser from continuing, but it wouldn't prevent the logout.

Back to the drawing board.

[techgy]

After a brief review of the Omniture site I'm no longer sure that they're the problem. They offer an "opt-out" feature on their site that prohibits the placement of a cookie for tracking. Also according to their policy they're only purpose is tracking. As their URL is the final one in a list of URL's being used for the logout, the actual logout must be occuring before the Omniture URL is seen. If the Omniture site was being block, this might hold up the browser from continuing, but it wouldn't prevent the logout.

Back to the drawing board.

I've tried again this past Sunday to determine what's being blocked by the ASA5505 that is preventing Ancestry from logging out, but haven't been successful. My best option at this point would be to contact the GSD and report the problem.

If anyone has any recommendations, I'd love to have them.

[russellhltn]

As their URL is the final one in a list of URL's being used for the logout, the actual logout must be occuring before the Omniture URL is seen.

How are you determining this is the last one? From a working session, or a "stalled" one?

[techgy]

Techgy, have you ever played around with the Firefox Extenstion Firebug? You would be able to trace every request to every site the browser is making (even for every single image request). I bet it would tell you what resources the site is trying to hit that are not coming back.

How are you determining this is the last one? From a working session, or a "stalled" one?

I used a FireFox addon called "FireBug" to log the URL's that are used for the LogOut link.

I contacted the Global Service Desk (GSD) this morning and reported the problem. They had a number of reports regarding the Ancestry site, but nothing in relation to the problem we're seeing. I have no doubt that the logout problem is related to the ASA as I can bypass the ASA and the problem disappears.

The fellow on the GSD had no suggestion as to a work-a-round but he did take the report and I assume that the programmers will now to do some research to determine where the block is occuring. When I hear back as to a resolution, I'll post it.

[russellhltn]

I'm trying to understand your testing method. If the URL to 112.2o7.net is the last "call" that executes in a stalled session, then I think that's the culprit. If it's the last call in the log out script, then maybe the logout is supposed to happen before then.

[techgy]

I'm trying to understand your testing method. If the URL to 112.2o7.net is the last "call" that executes in a stalled session, then I think that's the culprit. If it's the last call in the log out script, then maybe the logout is supposed to happen before then.

The call to 112.2o7.net is - IMHO - not the logout. I would have to believe that the actual logout is being handled by Ancestry itself and that this final URL is hanging up so that you don't get a confirmation of the logout.

I received a call back from the GSD this afternoon with a suggestion of a resolution. Their "resolution" was a change in the scripting of the ASA. Unfortunately, it didn't resolve the problem.

However, during my experimentation I accidentally discovered that when the blank screen appears upon an attempt to logout from Ancestry, if I refresh the browser screen twice, while on the blank screen, I'm finally logged out of Ancestry.

I don't recall trying this before and at this point I don't know if this is a result of their script changes or whether it will work in another building. I'm taking a few days vacation this week so in the next couple of days if I'm around the stake center I'll try this procedure on another unmodified ASA.

They've agreed that the problem is either with the scripting or the filtering, but apparently haven't been able to pin it down - yet.

Edit: I'll be calling the GSD back this afternoon to follow up on a call they made to me. However, I'm curious as to whether anyone else has seen this problem?

[techgy]

After multiple attempts by the Global Service Desk to resolve this issue I have decided to close the request. I've spent numerous hours on the phone in an attempt to find a resolution but nothing's been successful.

The final attempt was made today with the GSD monitoring the ASA 5505 firewall scripting while several attempts were made to log out. Nothing concrete was discovered. I have confirmed that the problem is with the filtering as removing the firewall results in the logout problem going away.

Hopefully someone else will see this issue and perhaps a resolution can be found down the road.

We do have a work-a-round that works and is relatively easy to do. When logging out of Ancestry we receive a blank screen. If the browser is refreshed twice while on that blank screen then Ancestry will log us out.

[techgy]

.......The final attempt was made today with the GSD monitoring the ASA 5505 firewall scripting while several attempts were made to log out. Nothing concrete was discovered. I have confirmed that the problem is with the filtering as removing the firewall results in the logout problem going away.

Hopefully someone else will see this issue and perhaps a resolution can be found down the road.

We do have a work-a-round that works and is relatively easy to do. When logging out of Ancestry we receive a blank screen. If the browser is refreshed twice while on that blank screen then Ancestry will log us out.

Bless those hard workers at the GSD! A few days ago I received a phone call from them in regards to this issue. Apparently, even though we had stopped worrying about the problem, they had not. :p

They had continued to work on the problem and had come up with a solution. Now exactly what they did isn't clear to me, but it only took a few moments for them to make a change in the scripting of the ASA and point it to a different server.

If anyone else has this problem rest assured that a fix is available.
My thanks to the team at the GSD for a good job!:D

[techgy]

I hesitated to resurrect an older thread, but the problem with Ancestry has reappeared. I haven't contacted the support desk as yet, but I suspect that either Ancestry has made changes or the scripting has been altered again following some updates.

Either way, we're having problems getting logged in and logged out. I've had reports of issues doing searches on Ancestry as well.

Has anyone experienced any issues with Ancestry.com? We're using the General Access level on ASA5505's and rarely have problems with anything. I have enough members and Family History Consultants in the stake who use Ancestry that it's worth pursuing and finding a fix for this.

Edit: I've done some checking and during the logout and login the web site of: http://myfamilyancestry.112.2o7.net is being referenced. This points to http://www.omniture.com/en/privacy/2o7#optout which I believe has something to do with statistical reporting for Ancestry. I believe that the ASA5505's are blocking this web site, which is what's hanging up Ancestry - again. We've been through this before as noted earlier in this thread.