You may find that when trying to login to the front-end of your website, using Internet Explorer, it appears as though you have not logged in - even though the back end administrator shows you as being logged in. In some cases, you might find that Firefox allows you to log in ok.

Possible Cause(s): Internet Explorer can get confused when handling cookies related to Joomla logins. Usually, this does not present a problem for most users, but if you are developing a Joomla website you might have a situation where you use the same browser to access two different websites with the same name (for example if you have a local copy as well as the online, live version), and this can cause cookie-chaos.

If the problem is not limited to Internet Explorer (ie. you can't get in using Firefox either), there might be a problem with your .htaccess file - in particular, the RewriteBase line. If this is pointing to the wrong directory, Joomla's front end will not be able to remember that you have logged in (although the back end administrator will show you as logged in).

There could also be a configuration conflict between your server and the default .htaccess file, in which case you may need to amend .htaccess (as described below).

Also, if you or your users are trying to log in behind a firewall or through a proxy connection, this can cause Joomla to start a new session seemingly at random, and therefore 'forget' that you were logged in.

Finally, you may also have this problem when a Joomla mySQL database was not correctly copied from one server to another.

Resolution: It's may be silly sounding, but clearing your cookies (tools->internet options->delete cookies) will usually resolve this (and many other issues, BTW) if the problem is restricted to Internet Explorer.

If you are experiencing the problem after having copied a mySQL database, try copying it again and make sure the whole database is copied ok (if necessary, break the SQL dump down into smaller files).

Otherwise, check your .htaccess file, and make sure that RewriteBase is pointing to the correct directory.

If the above does not solve the problem, you could try amending your .htaccess file. Warning! Changing your .htaccess file can cause undesirable side effects on your website. Please make sure you backup your .htaccess file first! Replacing the standard .htaccess settings with the following might help (replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain):

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} www.yourdomain.com
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /$1 [L]

If the problem occurs because you need to login from behind a firewall or proxy, you may need to make a hack to Joomla's session handling. Please see this thread for more details.

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