Logging into Multiple Accounts

[ThorGoLucky]

Hi, this might be more of a Firefox or Internet Explorer question, but I'll ask here anyway.

After I fully deploy Zimbra Network 3.1.4 I will have users that need to be logged into two or more accounts at the same time. I want them to be able to use Firefox tabs to easly switch between accounts (i.e. between their personal account and an online ordering account).

But, if I try to create a new browser tab and login under a different account, the Zimbra login dialog will not appear; instead, it automatically logs in under the same account as in the first browser tab. Can I tell Zimbra or Firefox not to pass the login credentials to the new browser tab?

The problem also happens between Internet Explorer instances/windows.

(The "Remember me on this computer" checkbox is unchecked)

Thanks!

[RyecoAaron]

Same here on firefox. So, I logged out of one which brought up the window to log into another account. Then it worked just fine. Kind of a pain to do it that way though.

[Klug]

I don't think you can : all tabs in a Firefox windows share the same "session" informations.
It's the same if you open a "New Window" from an existing one.

It's also the same with IE.

And it's not related to Zimbra.

[ThorGoLucky]

Thanks. My temporary solution is to have them use Firefox for one account and Internet Explorer for the other account. And then maybe Opera if they need to have yet another account open too.

[ter]

We have several users who need to login to 2 accounts simultaneously. This has worked until recently by having them login with Firefox to one account and using IE with the 2nd account.

This no longer works though. Firefox seems to work properly but IE works very slowly and sometimes freezes.

After rebooting and logging in again (while logged into another account with Firefox) I get this error from IE:


============

A network error has occurred

msg - Csfe service error
code - NETWORK ERROR
method - ZmCsfeCommand.prototype.invoke
detail - Empty HTTP response


============

Also auto-complete for email addresses doesn't work when composing an email. I get a short message in the bottom left corner of the web browser UI saying Contacts had not fully loaded and when I open contacts there are no entries visible.

Is anyone else having this issue? Any solutions or idea what might be causing this, or why it worked before but no longer? The only changes to the workstations have been applying Windows updates.

[jpcaldwell]

I got around this by using a second subdomain pointing at my zimbra server, so I have mail.domain.com and zimbra.domain.com. I can login into two separate accounts, one using each subdomain, and I don't have any conflicts.

[ThorGoLucky]

Oooo, good idea, jpcaldwell.

[Basil Fawlty]

You might be able to add a third one by using the IP address instead of the dns name. That assumes you have a static IP.

[rajahd]

This thread is the closest existing discussion on another issue I'm trying to tackle. In our retail stores we have a 1-2 "register" computers which are used by associates not only for ringing customers out but for any other business activities they need. This includes e-mail.

We really want to be able to have multiple associates e-mail accounts open at the same time so they can quickly flip to their account and check/send e-mail. Some of our stores have 4-6 associates on duty at any given time so using different e-mail clients and even different domain aliases is inconvenient at best.

As Zimbra Desktop matures this may offer a stop-gap measure but having all possible people loaded into all ZD installs is still far from ideal. Has anyone come up with a good way to have multiple accounts open simultaneously without all the juryrigging?

Other systems use tokens or tickets to keep unique sessions isolated within a multi-session environment (which browsers are inherently). There's also a lot of talk about methods to virtualize browser sessions mostly around security but it would also increase web app flexibility for multiple unique sessions.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts. Right now people just log out of whoever is in there and log in as themselves which is annoying but requires no additional programming

[rajahd]

Ironically, as I continued to search the web for a utility to load multiple browsers as separate instances (with independent sessions, not unlike a mini-Virtual PC) I discovered an article talking about this exact issue related to Internet Explorer.

It appears IE7 (and possibly earlier versions - it wasn't mentioned and I don't have any to test with) *will* allow multiple windows with independent sessions as long as the user starts the program again (from the quick launch or shortcut). Windows initiated from within IE (such as a javascript window.open, hyperlink with the target="_blank" and the New Tab/Window menu option) cause the new window to share the existing session.

FireFox, which we use almost exclusively, reuses a shared session across all instances which is why we ran into this issue. Guess we'll have to start using IE. I tested it with my accounts and it worked fine. Of course all of the windows say "Zimbra: Inbox", so now I'm wondering if there's a way to change the title to include the account name...?

Pending replies I'll keep searching the forums for answers/clues to this latest hurdle.