If you use Yet Another Forum.NET 1.9.1.8 (YAF) and set multiple boards on the same host, members have to logout from one board in order to login into another board. Otherwise exception "user isn't registered" is raised.

Here is the stack:
Line 232: {
Line 233: if(User.IsAuthenticated)
Line 234: throw new ApplicationException(string.Format("User '{0}' isn't registered.",User.Name));
Line 235: else
Line 236: throw new ApplicationException("Failed to find guest user.";

Stack Trace:

[ApplicationException: User 'test' isn't registered.]
yaf.pages.ForumPage.ForumPage_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) in c:\YAFForum\pages\ForumPage.cs:234
System.EventHandler.Invoke(Object sender, EventArgs e) +0
System.Web.UI.Control.OnLoad(EventArgs e) +67
System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +35
System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +98
System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +98
System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +98
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain() +750

It seems that Board 1 sets an authenticated cookie and Board 2 reads that cookie, finds the member's name, but then can't resolve it since there is no such a member in that database. First you need to check whether the <forms> authentication tags are the same (same cookie name) in the web.config files. If same, try different authentication form names. See the following example:

If you put the pictures in the avatar collection in <Your Domain>/Forums/Images/Avatars, "Select your Avatar from our Collection: [ Click Here to Select an Avatar ]" won't work. You need to make a sub-directory and put all the avatars in there. By creating different directories with different categorised names, you can present your avatars to forum users by type, eg. animals, cars, plants, scenery.

Problem: YAF logs out users automatically after a couple of minutes of idle time

I extended the session timeout for forms authentication section in web.config file. But it didn't help.

It seems that the app is getting recycled. A couple of minutes is too short, but depends on your hosting company.

Now I'm trying adding a machine key using ASP.NET machine Key Generator.



I think YAF uses passwordFormat=Encrypted with ASP.NET 2.0's Membership provider. The machineKey approach could be the solution to the problem.

I hope the problem will go away.