Captcha Not working at sign up

I was having this problem too after switching servers. I am going to start looking into it. If I figure anything out I will let you know.

Thanks. I would really appreciate that. I hoped to launch on Friday but it looks like that is not going to happen unless I can get this captcha issue resolved. I don't want to open the site up without it.

URL and test account? We really can't try to help unless we can actually go look at the problem.

I don't have a test account. The site is www.twiwrite.net. It is under maintenance mode right now to keep ppl out until I can figure this out. I don't want spammers on there.

I unlocked it. It's not like anyone can sign up until the captcha starts working anyway.

Thanks for any help. This is driving me nuts.

Turn debug on.  From what I can see though, it's not setting the session cookie for the captcha code.

OK, I turned on Debug. What am I looking for now? Is there something specific I should try?

Thanks again for your help.

OK, I don't think this is related to anything but just in case, I noticed my Random Story block has stopped working. It just shows the same story every time.
I don't know how the two could be related, but thought I would throw that out there just in case.

Thanks

Yeah it's not saving the $_SESSION variable for the captcha.  You can "View Source" and look towards the bottom for the debug information.  It'll look something like this:

<!-- $_SESSION 
Array
(
    [9K2Gk3zm7X_skin] => scribbled_too
)
 -->
<!-- $_COOKIE 
Array
(
    [PHPSESSID] => bd122e65fe547bf00ef287574549d801
)
 -->
<!-- $_POST 
Array
(
)
 --><!-- SELECT * FROM fanfiction_categories ORDER BY leveldown, displayorder -->
<!-- SELECT charname, catid, charid FROM fanfiction_characters ORDER BY charname -->
<!-- SELECT * FROM fanfiction_classes ORDER BY class_name -->
<!-- SELECT * FROM fanfiction_classtypes ORDER BY classtype_name -->

<!-- SELECT * FROM fanfiction_ratings -->
<!-- SELECT * from fanfiction_pagelinks ORDER BY link_access ASC -->
<!-- SELECT message_text FROM fanfiction_messages WHERE message_name = 'copyright' LIMIT 1 -->
<!-- SELECT * FROM fanfiction_online WHERE online_uid=0 AND online_ip = INET_ATON('98.222.190.121') -->
<!-- UPDATE fanfiction_online SET online_timestamp = '1285871413' WHERE online_uid=0 AND online_ip = INET_ATON('98.222.190.121') -->
<!-- DELETE FROM fanfiction_online WHERE online_timestamp < 1285871353 -->
<!-- SELECT COUNT(online_ip) FROM fanfiction_online WHERE online_uid = 0 -->
<!-- SELECT o.online_uid, author.penname as penname FROM fanfiction_online as o, fanfiction_authors as author WHERE o.online_uid = author.uid AND o.online_uid != 0 -->
<!-- SELECT * FROM fanfiction_poll WHERE poll_end IS NULL OR poll_end = '0000-00-00 00:00:00' ORDER BY poll_id DESC LIMIT 1 -->
<!-- SELECT COUNT(vote_opt) as count, vote_opt FROM fanfiction_poll_votes WHERE vote_poll = '2' GROUP BY vote_opt  ORDER BY vote_opt -->

There should be another line under $_SESSION that says something like:

    [9K2Gk3zm7X_digit] => 23417

Since the skin $_SESSION variable was set it's not a problem with setting session information.  You're seeing the captcha image so it's also not an issue with GD being disabled or not installed.  Those would be the 2 most likely culprits for a problem.  I'm not sure what to tell you.  You could try switching the file button.php with basic.button.php (both in the includes folder). Just rename button.php to something else then rename basic.button.php to button.php.  I'd be surprised if that would help though from what I'm seeing.

Wow, I just learned a lot of things from this. LOL

OK are you talking about renaming the whole button.php file in the includes folder, or something in the code? Sorry, I've had very little sleep the last few days so bear with me.

This is the code for the buttons.php folder if it helps. I didn't see anything in there to change, so that's why I'm a little consfused.

<?php

session_start();
define("_BASEDIR", "../");
include("../config.php");
unset($_SESSION[$sitekey.'_digit']);

$image = imagecreate(140, 40);

$white    = imagecolorallocate($image, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF);
$gray    = imagecolorallocate($image, 0xC0, 0xC0, 0xC0);
$darkgray = imagecolorallocate($image, 0x50, 0x50, 0x50);
$black = imagecolorallocate($image, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00);

srand((double)microtime()*1000000);
unset($digit, $cnum);

function rgb_rand($min=0,$max=255) {
$color['r'] = mt_rand($min,$max);
$color['g'] = mt_rand($min,$max);
$color['b'] = mt_rand($min,$max);
return $color;
}

/* Build the list of fonts */

putenv('GDFONTPATH=' . realpath('.'));

$folder=dir("cFonts/"); //The directory where your fonts reside

while($font=$folder->read()) {
  if(stristr($font,'.ttf')) $fontList[] = "cFonts/".$font;
}

$folder->close();

for ($i = 0; $i < 5; $i++) {
$cnum[$i] = rand(0,9);
$rC = rgb_rand(0, 175);
$rColors[$i] = imagecolorallocate($image, $rC['r'], $rC['g'], $rC['b']);

for ($x = 0; $x < 2; $x++) {
  $x1 = rand(0,140);
  $y1 = rand(0,40);
  $x2 = rand(0,140);
  $y2 = rand(0,40);
  imageline($image, $x1, $y1, $x2, $y2 , $rColors[$i]); 
}

}

/* generate random dots in background */
for( $i=0; $i<(140*40)/3; $i++ ) {
  imagefilledellipse($image, mt_rand(0,140), mt_rand(0,40), 1, 1, $gray);
}

for ($i = 0; $i < 5; $i++) {
$x = $x + mt_rand(16, 24);
$y = mt_rand(26, 32);
$angle = mt_rand(-15, 15);
$c = $ccolor[$i];
$fnt = mt_rand(0, sizeof($fontList) - 1);
$colori = $rColors[$i];
imagettftext($image, mt_rand(20, 24), $angle,  $x, $y, $colori, $fontList[$fnt], $cnum[$i]);

}

$digit = "$cnum[0]$cnum[1]$cnum[2]$cnum[3]$cnum[4]";

$_SESSION[$sitekey.'_digit'] = md5($sitekey.$digit);

header("Expires: Tue, 11 Jun 1985 05:00:00 GMT"); 
header("Last-Modified: " . gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s") . " GMT"); 
header("Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate"); 
header("Cache-Control: post-check=0, pre-check=0", false);
header("Pragma: no-cache");
header('Content-type: image/png');
imagepng($image);
imagedestroy($image);

exit( );
?>

So, by this I'm guessing you are talking about changing the file name? And as for basic.button.php, I'm assuming you're referring to plain.button.php? Just wanted to clarify. I'm fairly new to this so I'm still learning.

If it is the files that I am supposed to change, does it matter what I rename the button.php too? Will it mess up anything by renaming it?

Again, thanks a ton for your help. I'm so stressed out over this. It's the only real problem I've had since installing the software that I haven't been able to figure out and it's driving me nuts. lol

Actually I went ahead and tried switching the folder names. It didn't work.

Any other suggestions?

Yes to both.  Rename the files and it is plain.button.php not basic.button.php.  If that doesn't work, I'm not sure what to do.

Okay.  Let's give this a try.

Find this line in the button.php file.

$_SESSION[$sitekey.'_digit'] = md5($sitekey.$digit);

Add the following to a line directly below it:

session_write_close();

So it'll look like:

$_SESSION[$sitekey.'_digit'] = md5($sitekey.$digit);
session_write_close();

No, ma'am. That didn't work either.  😥  I really appreciate your help Tammy. I'm so frustrated. I even contacted customer service for my domain and they said it was in the software and not the site, so I have no idea. I feel so helpless at this point, but appreciate any suggestions that might fix this.

OK I have an idea. Could this have anything to do with the member/visitor sessions not being saved?