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Sudden death of osX.pl - help please!

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    Sudden death of osX.pl - help please!

    Hello everybody - this is my first post, after having lurked for some time and learned lots of great tips from this board.

    But now I'm in big trouble. I'm running Actinic 7.06 at http://www.therapy-school.co.uk/acatalog/ , and have been happily using Actinic since version 4 (as you can see from the antique site design), but last week we suddenly stopped receiving orders.

    What happens is that os00000X.pl times out at the stage where it is supposed to forward to either the payment processor (Protx) or the receipt page if they are sending us a cheque or card details separately. All other scripts are working fine.

    We know the problem does not lie with Protx, because the result is the same regardless of payment method.

    We have tried changing the script ID - in fact we are now up to 7.

    The site is hosted by Fasthosts - I have been through the usual steps with them, and they are adamant that there is no server issue, which seems plausible given the fast response of all the other Actinic scripts. I have checked through the commonly reported problems with Fasthosts listed here, but none of them seem to match.

    No changes were made to network or any other settings between the software working and not working. And the troubleshooting check shows all the scripts are original Actinic with no editing by us.

    We have Actinic Cover, but despite a few hours on the phone to Sumiya in support and uploading two snapshots for them to look at we have not seen any improvement resulting from the only suggestion they have made, namely enabling enhanced FTP in the network settings. Since they mentioned FTP, we have also experimented with passive FTP settings on and off, and generating the script and uploading it manually, but this also brought no improvement.

    Worst of all, Actinic support now seem to be ignoring our phone messages and e-mails - we're contacting them every day because we are losing large amounts of money all the time the site is not taking orders, but we've only had one e-mail back from them and that was on Thursday 6th. Sumiya, if you're reading this, was it something I said?

    The only post I can find describing a problem similar to ours is this:
    http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=22043
    but ours is invariably rather than sporadically out of action.

    So we are desperate for help and will be enormously grateful for any suggestions. I realise that our suspending online ordering will limit the amount you can tell from the site, but I am (a) hoping that there might be some immediate suggestion and (b) trying to minimise the amount of time the site is broken and therefore annoying the customers who will go elsewhere rather than try to phone us. But if no progress can be made without a look at the site not working, I shall un-suspend it.

    At present we've got a few more days before we have to find another e-commerce setup which we can get in place double-quick so we can get orders coming in again. So all ideas gratefully received.

    MTIA,

    Keir

    #2
    > and have been happily using Actinic since version 4
    if you haven't changed Actinic at all, this has to be hosting issue or maybe a problem with protx - I can recall an email last week saying that they were upgrading.

    Have you tested your site on non-fasthosts hosting to see what happens?

    Regards,
    Jan Strassen, Mole End Software - Plugins and Reports for Actinic V4 to V11, Sellerdeck V11 to V2018, Sellerdeck Cloud
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    Comment


      #3
      Dear Jan,

      Thanks for the rapid response. I don't think it's Protx, as the problem affects all payment methods including where they just go straight to the Actinic receipt page.

      I don't have any non-Fasthosts hosting, so I'd better get some. Before I do the upload, am I going to run into any licensing problems through having the site active in two locations with the same licence key? Or does that problem only arise if you are running two separate sites with the same key on your own PC?

      Keir

      Comment


        #4
        what other payment methods do you have on the site that can be used to run tests?

        is it fasthosts windows or unix hosting

        Comment


          #5
          Jo,

          The options we have are:

          Credit card instant payment [Protx]
          Credit card send us your details [Actinic shared SSL or print receipt]
          Send us a cheque [print Actinic receipt]
          Nochex [address is sales@therapy-school.co.uk]

          We are on Fasthosts Windows.

          Having read other posts here about Pinbrook, you are high on my list of people to call to try to get some alternative hosting sorted out! Any suggestions in the meantime?

          Keir

          PS. Heard from Actinic support this morning - Sumiya had been unwell on Friday, hence the lack of response since Thursday.

          Obviously we're sorry she's been poorly, but does anybody know if they really only have one person who can deal with tech support queries?

          Comment


            #6
            I would just add payment by cheque, leave the others out of the game, then refresh actinic. Refresh not upload

            This will test a payment method that does not need to go off elsewhere and may give a clue if the problem is actinic related

            Let us know when cheque is uploaded

            Comment


              #7
              OK. I have done as above, so the only payment method available is pay by cheque, and the problem is still the same - script timeout on os000007.pl, but all other scripts working just fine.

              What does that tell us?

              Keir

              Comment


                #8
                it confirms what you suspected that the issue is not Protx etc, more likely hosting.

                Have you logged in via FTP and removed and created the cgi-bin and ensured it has correct permissions?

                Comment


                  #9
                  OK. So I'll re-suspend online ordering (having still not heard back from Actinic support since this morning's note saying why they didn't contact us last week), get some non-Fasthosts hosting organised, and try again.

                  Thanks for help so far... I'll be back!

                  Keir

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I just tried a test order and it definitely looks like somthing the host has implemented. This isn't a 'normal' timeout where nothing happens, instead the script is terminated by the server with the message
                    CGI Timeout
                    The specified CGI application exceeded the allowed time for processing. The server has deleted the process.
                    This happens fairly quickly and looks to me as if the server has been misconfigured. (although I'm no expert on IIS systems).

                    Mike
                    -----------------------------------------

                    First Tackle - Fly Fishing and Game Angling

                    -----------------------------------------

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Yes - a known disadvantage of Fasthosts is that they set a very short timeout for CGI scripts. But they are adamant that nothing has changed at their end (and I don't think I can establish otherwise), and all the other Actinic scripts seem to be running smoothly at all times without this causing a problem.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        The timeout could be indicative of actinic doing something and having a problem, such as writing checkout stuff into a file somewhere.

                        I would check that the file/directory permissions are still 755 (or whatever in IIS) but failing that I think the best thing to do is move host.

                        Mike
                        -----------------------------------------

                        First Tackle - Fly Fishing and Game Angling

                        -----------------------------------------

                        Comment


                          #13
                          This is a hugely belated thank-you to everybody who offered help and advice with our shopping cart sudden death problem, with particular thanks to Jo from Pinbrook for her assistance above and beyond the call of duty. We're sorry it's taken so long.

                          Briefly, our problem appeared to boil down to the fact that we were running Actinic on a Fasthosts Windows server. It had been working fine for years, but then suddenly it wasn't. We now have the identical sales site on a Linux server under our Fasthosts reseller account, and it works impeccably.

                          So the moral of the story is, as has been pointed out before, if you have a good reason for using Fasthosts make sure it's not on Windows!

                          Thanks again.

                          Keir Giles
                          OTS

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