Browsers do not remember realm authentication details

Question

Hello,
When I try to access pages in a protected realm, I sometimes have to enter the username nad password 5 or more times. Sometimes just twice. Even if I tell my browser to remember the password/username, it still prompts me to authenticate later on. I don't think it's a browser problem because this affects Safari, Firefox (win and mac) and Internet Explorer.
Why would it try to authenticate so many times? And why doesn't it remember the authentication details? Would the webserver be sending out a different kind of identification ( or whatever?) each time, so the browser thinks it's a different site? (Perhaps related to that 16080 cache?)
Thanks for your suggestions
-Woody

Answer 1

Since it's affecting multiple browsers it has to be something server-side.
Realms are keyed off both the hostname and the URI in combination with the realm name. You should look at the URLs in question, make sure they all have the same realm name assigned, and check the web server logs to see what the server is saying about the authentication (e.g. look for any 'authentication failed' messages).
It is also true that the performance cache (:16080) port can affect this if you're using redirects since http://www.yoursite.net/ and http://www.yoursite.net:16080/ are completely different sites as far as the browser is concerned, and therefore would require separate sign-ins. Try turning off the performance cache to see if that helps.