Not sure why FormsAuthentication cookies in an ASP.NET web application are not working for me

Question

I am having issues getting my ASP.NET web application to either read or find (not sure which) the FormsAuthentication cookie I create when a new user registers. Here's the code for creating the cookie:

            FormsAuthenticationTicket ticket = new FormsAuthenticationTicket(1, user.UserName, DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now.AddDays(30),
        true, null, FormsAuthentication.FormsCookiePath);
            string encTicket = FormsAuthentication.Encrypt(ticket);
            Response.Cookies.Add ( new HttpCookie ( FormsAuthentication.FormsCookieName, encTicket ) );
            if ( !Roles.RoleExists ( "Members" ) )
                Roles.CreateRole ( "Members" );
            if ( !Roles.IsUserInRole ( user.UserName, "Members" ) )
                Roles.AddUserToRole ( user.UserName, "Members" );

And here are the settings in the web.config file for forms authentication:

      <authentication mode="Forms" >
        <forms loginUrl="signin.aspx" name="P411" path="/" cookieless="AutoDetect" slidingExpiration="true" />
      </authentication>

In one of my master pages I am checking the HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.IsAuthenticated property to either display a messag e in the header to authenticated users or a different message to unregistered/unauthenticated ones. It always returns "false" for the IsAuthenticated property, even though the registration code functions correctly. I don't know if I am setting the properties wrong in web.config, creating the cookie incorrectly, or if I have to do something else to read the cookie's properties correctly. I could use some help with this. Thanks!

Answer 1

Try changing DateTime.Now in FormsAuthenticationTicket to DateTime.UTCNow