connection problems

[petesouthwest]

Hi

I'm trying to connect to one of my supanames domains to test the website.
Its a Linux host which I beleive has the required specs. I can connect to the domain and upload pages using dreamweaver with no problems.

However, when I tried running the web-configure website details, it gets as far as the website address (I enter http://www.ict-coursework.co.uk) and then says:

'the wizard recieved an error while verifying the webserver: error sending request'.

The website is fine, loads up in a browser with no problems. If I try http://ftp.ict-coursework.co.uk it moves to the next step...

On the directories dialog, I have a blank box to the left, and the correct cgi-bin folder on the right (/cgi-bin). Clicking next results in the error

'an error occured while sending an HTML request to the server. perhapse your network is down or your server is down. Contact your network admin or ISP to correct the situation'

But Dreamweaver connects fine so I dont think it is an ISP or network problem?

Looking at the advanced network setup, the settings all appear to be there. Clicking on test results in the error:

Actinic received a server error from the web server. The CGI scripts are not executing properly on the server. Run Web | Configure Web Site Details... to review your web site configuration.

and then:

The test script failed to execute on the web server. The error could be caused by several things. Check the path to the Perl shell, the CGI script extension, the path to CGI-BIN, and the CGI-BIN URL. This error could also occur if your web site is out of disk space or your web server is not configured to accept POSTs to CGI scripts.

View the remote folder in dreamweaver reveals the acatalog has been created and cp000001.ppl and ts000001.pl have been created in the cgi-bin
subfolder.

According to Supanames they do accept POSTs to cgi scripts. but the paths should be:

/home/ictcourseuk/public_html/cgi-bin
/usr/bin/perl

Any ideas as to what is going wrong?

Many thanks
Pete

[petesouthwest]

these are my settings:

HTTPPROXYMODE 0
HTTPPROXYADDRESS
HTTPPROXYPORT 80
HTTPPROXYUSER
HTTPPROXYPASSWORD
FTPPROXYMODE 0
FTPPROXYADDRESS
FTPPROXYPORT 21
FTPPROXYUSER
FTPPROXYPASSWORD
SCRIPTID 1
SCRIPTEXT .pl
SMTPHOST localhost
WEBSITEURL www.ict-coursework.co.uk
IGNOREPASSIVEERRORS true
USERELATIVECGIURLS false
PATHTOPERL #! /usr/lib/perl
USEENHANCEFTP false
FTPCLIENTTIMEOUT 15000
FTPRETRYDELAY 3000
FTPSILENT false
FTPMAXRETRIES 3
FTPCONNECTTIMEOUT 25000
SMTPAUTHREQUIRED false
SMTPUSERNAME
SMTPPASSWORD
CATALOGURL http://www.ict-coursework.co.uk/acatalog/
CGIBINURL http://www.ict-coursework.co.uk/cgi-bin/
PATHFROMCGITOCATALOG ../acatalog/
CODEBASE ./
FTPHOST ftp.ict-coursework.co.uk
FTPUSERNAME ***
FTPPASSWORD ***
PATHTOCGIBIN /cgi-bin/
USEPASSIVEFTP false
FTPPATHFROMCGITOCATALOG

[petesouthwest]

Not sure if it is relevent, but I didnt run the wizard at first, I just entered the info in the Advanced Network setup.

Now when I run the wizard it does show folders in the directories dialog, but then I get the same error as before.

[pinbrook]

PATHTOPERL #! /usr/lib/perl

should be /usr/lib/perl

is there a cgi-bin on the server, does it have permissions 755

[petesouthwest]

Hi

I have tried /usr/lib/perl too (that was my original setting) but still doesnt work

Dreamweaver says the permissions on the cgi-bin are 777, so that should be ok shouldnt it?

[petesouthwest]

With both Dreamweaver and SmartFTP I can connect first time with no problems. When running the wizard in Actinic I get a lot of 'Actinic cannot connect to FTP server. server not accepting connections' messages. login request denied'

[I-CC]

Check with your host that the permissions of 777 is not too open for the operating system, as many including us will not allow 777 permissions, with 755 being more than adequate for scripts to function.

777 permissions gives a world writable permission, which is not a good idea, so might be your host has the OS set up to disallow operation of scripts that are set to or exist within folders set to 777.

Just an idea.

[petesouthwest]

Ideas are appreciated, I have run out of them

Changing permisions to 755 didnt help

I am connecting via a Netgear DG834 router, found references to the MTU setting, so changed it to 1500 as suggested (it was 1498) and rebooted router, but still get same errors.

[pinbrook]

USEPASSIVEFTP false

change this to true

[petesouthwest]

I dont understand why the 'website address' dialog, that requests the address I would type into a browser, throws up an error if I type in http://www.ict-coursework.co.uk/
but accepts
http://ftp.ict-coursework.co.uk/

I also shut down zonealarm.......

[petesouthwest]

change this to true

Hi

Tried both true and false....

my current settings look like:

HTTPPROXYMODE 0
HTTPPROXYADDRESS
HTTPPROXYPORT 80
HTTPPROXYUSER
HTTPPROXYPASSWORD
FTPPROXYMODE 0
FTPPROXYADDRESS
FTPPROXYPORT 21
FTPPROXYUSER
FTPPROXYPASSWORD
SCRIPTID 1
SCRIPTEXT .pl
SMTPHOST localhost
WEBSITEURL
IGNOREPASSIVEERRORS true
USERELATIVECGIURLS false
PATHTOPERL usr/lib/perl
USEENHANCEFTP false
FTPCLIENTTIMEOUT 15000
FTPRETRYDELAY 3000
FTPSILENT false
FTPMAXRETRIES 3
FTPCONNECTTIMEOUT 25000
SMTPAUTHREQUIRED false
SMTPUSERNAME
SMTPPASSWORD
CATALOGURL http://www.ict-coursework.co.uk/acatalog/
CGIBINURL http://www.ict-coursework.co.uk/cgi-bin/
PATHFROMCGITOCATALOG ../acatalog/
CODEBASE ./
FTPHOST ftp.ict-coursework.co.uk
FTPUSERNAME ****
FTPPASSWORD ***
PATHTOCGIBIN cgi-bin/
USEPASSIVEFTP true
FTPPATHFROMCGITOCATALOG

[petesouthwest]

just thought i would add....

When i used the trial version with Actinic host it all worked fine.

[wjcampbe]

There is nothing at all at that web address, not even a holding page.

Can you try connecting with an FTP programme to your ftp address and creating both the /acatalog/ and /cgi-bin/ folders and setting permissions on the folders. Then try again from Actinic.

[petesouthwest]

Hi

Just put an index.html page on so http://www.ict-coursework.co.uk/ should say hello!

Can you explain why deleting and re-creating the cgi-bin and acatalog folders would help? Actinic creates the catalog file while doing its wizard, permisions are set to 777. It also manages to create cp000001.ppl and ts000001.pl in the cgi-bin folder.

It seems sooooo temperamental, all my other ftp programs connect and disconnect hapily, as many times as i like, but as soon as I run the wizard on Actinic and hit the error, it wont even 'login' for a while Then if i leave it for a few minutes i can get to the directories dialog, sometimes even seeing the left hand box populated, then error, and i cant even get passed the FTP account details dialog.

I've been going at this since 7:30am .....

[pinbrook]

Can you explain why deleting and re-creating the cgi-bin and acatalog folders would help?

its one of those stab in the dark suggestions, sometimes deleting and recreate just creates it better! for the record acatalog folder is created by actinic and needs permissions of 777

cgi-bin needs to be pre-created and requires 755.

the fact that DW/FTP connect confirms the webspace is accessible, and possibly could indicate the blockage is within actinic or router/firewall blocking actinic.

You mentioned a netgear router before, which now has 1500MTU.

Therefore can you turn off all firewalls, and connect to the www via a direct connection rather than a router, see if this improves the situation.

I had a very stubborn client in the past who would not accept his PC was the faulty part until I forced him to connect via modem, lo and behold actinic connected first time!

Rerun network wizard, as your settings have changed so many times, I don't think pathto cgibin is correct without the leading /

but a rerun of the wizard should pick that up