FAQ : Access issues | abbywinters.com

I have forgotten my password. Help?Top

We email you your password (and other account details) when you join, and we suggest you keep this email as it has a lot of useful info in it.

You can also head over to GMBill's account info page, enter your details (we need to know who you are before we go giving you your password - what if you were a hacker?!), and you can check your password (amongst other things).

If you joined by CCBill (very unlikely), you can go to their account lookup page.

What web browsers do you support?Top

abbywinters.com has been fully tested on the browsers below:

PC:

• Firefox 3.5 and up
• Chrome 7.0 and up
• Internet Explorer 7 and up

Mac (OSX):

• Safari 5.x and up
• Firefox 3.5 and up

The browsers below may not have had the full suite of testing for abbywinters.com but we believe there should be no problems, please let us know if you experience any issues.

Mac (OSX):

• Chrome 7.0 and up

Linux:

• Firefox 3.5 and up
• Chrome 7.0 and up

What's with that Security Code thing?Top

Some people use automated programs to block other customers from accessing the site. To counteract this practice we ask that you type in the code so you can log in. You do not have permission to access this web site if you are using an automated program.

Automated programs can't "read" the letters and numbers you see in the box: only humans can. When you enter this code (which changes all the time), it ensures that your login is entered by a real person. This also helps to reduce system loads and improve website performance.

If you're not sure what the code is, make your best guess. If you're incorrect, you'll get another chance to enter a different word on the next screen.

You need to type the black letters and numbers into the blank box (pdahb in the exaple below). It does not matter if you type it in lowercase or UPPERCASE. You should not enter spaces between the letters.

These letters will change each time you reload the page or click the refresh icon below "I can't read this". After four minutes, you will need to reload the page or refresh the letters to get a new security code, as they expire. If you try to log in with an expired code, you'll be asked to log in again.

If you're having problems reading the security code, and you're using Windows XP, using the built-in "Magnifier" should help you.

Click on the Start menu, Programs, Accessories, Accessibility, Magnifier, which is a small handy application that zooms in on an area around the mouse pointer. Set at about 2, it should be perfect for you.

If I join again will I get my username back again? For the boards too?Top

If no one has used your username to join the site since your account lapsed, yes, you can rejoin with your same username.

To do so, you must enter it AND your old password during sign-up. The page will provide a suggested password but you can delete that one and enter your own.

If you don't remember your old password, or if you have other problems doing this, contact us.

If you participate on the boards, we'll hold your account for you indefinitely.

I don't see the security code when I try to log inTop

To see the security code you must have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

It is also possible that you're behind a proxy server, firewall, or you're running your own firewall or security software such as Zone Alarm, Norton Internet Security, etc. If this is the case you'll need to adjust your settings to allow access to abbywinters.com.

Why has my account been suspended?Top

Your account has been suspended for 120 minutes, as you have made eight unsuccessful login attempts, and you're shaping up to look like a hacker to our system! We don't want hackers here, they are bad news for you our paying customer and us trying to run a fast and reliable website, so we have to do this, sorry.

This would be because you entered your password wrong eight times. That means, you don't know your password. We recommend you copy and paste your username and password from the email we sent you (Not sure ho to do that? We have a tutorial!).

Your account will be automatically unlocked in two hours, in the mean time, you can look up your account over at gmbill.com (http://www.gmbill.com) if you have lost your email.

You can contact us and we can unsuspend you right away, if we're online.

Why do I keep getting a page that says I need to log in again?Top

If you've logged into the site, but keep getting nagged to log in when trying to download images or videos, it indicates that your abbywinters.com cookies are stale or corrupted. What you need to do is delete your AW cookies and log in again by entering your username and password on the Home page.

I think my account has been hacked, what do I do?Top

This is due to hackers all over the world using your username and password to access this site. We have advanced and aggressive software in place to combat this, as it is a serious problem that greatly increasing our operating costs.

The system has never made a false positive suspension to date, so no matter how hard you find it to believe, your username and password have been "cracked" or discovered by hackers - else you'd not be seeing this page.

This happened because:

• You shared your password with friends (hopefully not likely) OR
• Hackers used software to "guess" the password (much more likely)

This did not happen because:

• You used your account from home, work, and a friend's house all on the same day
• You disconnected and reconnected several times from your ISP on the same day
• You use an ISP or connection method that utilises dynamic IPs (cable, DSL, AOL)
• You had several browsers or browser windows open to this site at the same time
• You used several different ISPs in the same day

These things could never cause your account to be listed as "hacked", and we consider these legitimate usage.

What can I do about it?

Head on over to our Accounts help page, fill in the info, and say in the notes that you received a message that your account was hacked. We will unlock your account, and issue you with a new password. You will not be able to access the site until we have done this. We'll always do it in under 24 hours, and often in under an hour.

Hackers!

Hackers use software to guess your password and username combination. Hackers use lists of tens of thousands of words at this website - and many others - to try to break in. They will get many "denied" errors, but after trying millions of combinations over several hours, they will come up with a list of access info pairs (ie, a username and a password that works).

Likelihood of this is greatly increased if you use:

• any dictionary word (in pretty much every language) ("sex", "secret")
• contractions of several words ("letmein", "goodporn")
• a proper noun (like "Schumacher", or "Ajax")
• a common letter-number combo (like "sk8ers" or "sexy69")
• the same password as you did with other sites (if it was simple)

Note: It is not your machine that has been hacked, it's mine! It was hacked because you chose a password that was too simple.

In future, for your username AND your password, please be sure to use a jumbled mixture of letters (upper and lowercase), and numbers, not a dictionary word, or a password you have used before. It says this very clearly when you are asked to enter a password when you signup. Please do not use any punctuation characters.

Once hackers have this access information, they then post it to a site dedicated to hacked passwords, so other people can use them. Our software detects lots of people using the same access pair, and suspends your account.

Password Sharing?

Please be sure to keep your access info secret, and to not share it with anyone (including friends!). You have paid for your access to this site, not everyone else's! Ask them to sign up as well, to support the site so it can get better. Please.

We are able to maintain a low price for this website, and ease of use, by having these safeguards in place. If we did not, WE would assign YOU a password and username, each ten characters long, random letters, numbers and punctuation, to gain access. Sure, then we'd have no more hacker problems, but you would be greatly inconvenienced. By letting you choose your own access info, we make it easier for you to be a member... but you have to help us a little as well!

What's with these cookie things?Top

You may be seeing this message because you do not have "cookies" enabled, or because you reported a problem that our customer support staff suspect is related to cookies.

Cookies are good (more info, or even more info) - if we did not use cookies, you'd be asked to enter your username and password for every image and every video you looked at. This would become very annoying!

This page has a lot of information, so use the table of contents here to see where you need to go:

Table of contents

1. Cookies are good!
2. Deleting old cookies
   1. in Internet Explorer
   2. in Firefox
3. Enabling cookies
   1. in Internet Explorer
   2. in Firefox
4. Allowing cookies for all sites
5. Allowing cookies for abbywinters.com only
6. Adjusting your firewall

Cookies are good!

We use cookies to help you access the site smoothly. We also use cookies to remember settings you make, like how many thumbnails per page, and if images open in a new window or not.

Based on the issues our staff have to deal with most often, you'll probably need to do things in this order (if the first thing in the list does not fix your problem, move on to the next item in the list, and so on):

1. Deleting old cookies (may be corrupt)
2. Enabling cookies in your browser
3. adjust firewall settings

Deleting old cookies!

If you have problems logging in, it will help to delete all cookies associated with this website.

Internet Explorer:

1. From the browser menu: Tools / Options / General / Temporary Internet Files / Settings / View Files
   (Internet explorer 7 users -
   From the browser menu: Tools / Options / General / Browsing history / Settings / View Files)
2. A window will open with a lot of filenames in it. Click on 'Name' to list them alphabetically.
3. You are looking for files named like this:

   Cookie:user@abbywinters.com
   Cookie:user@abbywinters.com/
   Cookie:user@www.abbywinters.com
   Cookie:user@www.abbywinters.com/

   where 'user' is the user logged in to Windows (your Windows username)

4. Right-click on each and choose delete.

Firefox:

1. From the browser menu: Tools / Options / Privacy / Cookies / Show Cookies
2. A small window will open with a list including descriptions of each cookie
3. You are looking for files named:

   abbywinters.com
   www.abbywinters.com

   with the descriptions of: user; sessiondata; pID

4. Do not choose those described with the letters bb, like bblastactivity, bbuserid etc, as they are for the messageboards
5. Choose each cookie and click Remove Cookie

Enabling cookies

"Cookies" must to be enabled to browse this site as a member. Cookies are enabled on your web browser by default, but you may have turned them off by mistake, or deliberately. If you did it by mistake, here's info on how re-enable them.

If you did it deliberately, you will need to enable cookies specifically for this site (see below).

In Internet Explorer

1. Go to the Tools menu
2. Select "Internet Options..."
3. Go to the Privacy Tab
4. Click the "Advanced..." button
5. UN-check "Override automatic cookie handling", Click OK
6. Set the slider to "Medium"
7. Click OK

Firefox

1. Go to the Tools menu
2. Select "Options..."
3. Click on the Privacy icon
4. In the "Cookies" section, check the "Accept cookies from sites" box
5. Click OK

Allow cookies for all sites (Recommended)

Enable cookies on your web browser (unlikely to be necessary). Most web browsers come with cookies allowed as their default setting, but sometimes people change this for various reasons (More info do cookies compromise security settings?). In Internet Explorer (will be similar in other browsers), go here:

1. TOOLS menu
2. Internet options...
3. Privacy Tab
4. Advanced...
5. choose your options
6. OK
7. OK

We recommend you DO NOT over-ride "automatic cookie handling", or, if you do, set "first party cookies" to "prompt", so it'll ask you if you want to allow specific cookies. You may get sick of this pretty fast, as many, many website set cookies.

Allow cookies for abbywinters.com only

You can set your browser to always allow cookies form us, and ignore them for other sites. To always allow cookies from abbywinters.com in Internet Explorer v6 (will be similar in other browsers):

1. TOOLS menu
2. Internet options...
3. Privacy Tab
4. Sites... Button
5. type in exactly: abbywinters.com
6. click ALLOW
7. OK
8. OK

Restart your browser, and your problems should be fixed.

Adjust Firewall

You may also need to adjust your software firewall (Norton Firewall, or Zone Alarm) or ad blocking software. You need to explicitly allow "abbywinters.com" (exactly that, without the quotes). As there are so many different types of these, we cannot provide specific instructions, but you're looking for something like "exceptions" or "allow".

Let us know if you still have problems.

Why do I get a notice that I have exceeded bandwidth?Top

You downloaded an extremely excessive amount of data from our site - way more than the entire amount content of the site. We're a small company who has to pay for your downloads, meaning you've downloaded some files more than once. This is factored into our subscription plans. If you see the "excessive downloads!" message, or you have been asked by the site administrators to view this page, you have cost us much more than your subscription, and we don't like you any more.

We have frozen your account, so you can browse pages on the site but not download any content.

It's unlikely you'd have a valid excuse for this, but you can contact us to discuss it if you wish. Some of the popular excuses that won't wash are:

• "I didn't read the terms and conditions!": You are required to agree to the terms and conditions before you join the site. We realise that not everyone reads the fine print, but unfortunately, it's a fact of life.
• "I gave my password to my buddies": You paid for the site for you, not for your buddies. Tell them to join themselves (and buy you a new sub, cos you won't be using this one again).
• "I installed this special program to mirror the site, but I did not know how to use it...": We don't need you to mirror the site, thanks all the same. You are responsible for software you install. Ignorance is not an excuse.
• "I got a new download manager, but I did not know how to use it...": Again, not out fault. Your computer downloaded it!
• "It wasn't me!": You're responsible for your password, which is the only way to access the site. We advise you to keep it secure. Our software does not make mistakes: we count each megabyte you downloaded.

What is this JavaScript thing about?Top

To see the security code you must have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

It is also possible that you're behind a proxy server, firewall, or you're running your own firewall or security software such as Zone Alarm, Norton Internet Security, etc. If this is the case you'll need to adjust your settings to allow access to abbywinters.com.