public ActionResult Index() { var existingUser = ChatHelper.GetChatUserFromCookie(this.Request); ChatViewModel chatViewModel = null; if (existingUser != null) { if (!ChatHub.IsUserRegistered(existingUser)) { // cookie is invalid ChatHelper.RemoveCookie(this.Response); return(this.RedirectToAction("Index")); } // in this case the authentication cookie is valid and we must render the chat chatViewModel = new ChatViewModel() { IsUserAuthenticated = true, UserId = existingUser.Id, UserName = existingUser.Name, UserProfilePictureUrl = existingUser.ProfilePictureUrl }; } return(this.View(chatViewModel)); }