acatalog: Major lag when submitting order

[mattm]

I am from an ISP that has a client running this ecommerce software. We run cPanel servers, with configservers.net's active firewall and brute force protection.

My client is running into an issue when an order is submitted, it delays for up to 5 minutes before showing the receipt screen. However, when I shut the firewall off it processes instantly.

My question is, what is the software doing when the order is submitted. Does it communicate back to his client PC to update something? Are there any other ports it needs to communicate over other than standard 21 80 443? Is there a config file I can tweak in this software? Any help is appreciated.

[acompton]

Matt,

I'm not the best qualified to help here, but I can tell you that when an order is submitted, the site runs perl scripts that write the order details to the server. All the cart manipulation is done through perl scripts. It does not communicate with site owner's PC (if thats what you meant). If it's the first order (since orders were downloaded), an email is sent to the site owner saying there is an order to download.

At what stage during the order process does the problem occur? Is it connected to the PSP communication?

[mattm]

Thanks for your quick response. This happens after clicking the final "next" to submit an order (below the credit card or bill on invoice drop downs.)

With the firewall off, it processes in seconds, but with it on - it literally takes 5 minutes+

Again this is the first time I've encountered this product, just wasn't sure if it was trying to communicate offsite.

I do notice in the script called os000204.pl, there are a lot of references to: filename="C:\Program Files\Actinic v7\Sites\Site1\Act_LogoImage.html"/

which led me to believe that possibly this software was trying to communicate back to the client.

[Mike Hughes]

Is it slow with all payment types or just the credit card one? Which kind of credit card option is being used? Actinic's in-built one or a psp?

Mike

[mattm]

In this particular even, I'm choosing invoice bill option. The customer states it happens with all CC transactions.

As far as "Actinic's in-built one or a psp" - could you explain what psp is, and if that function communicates externally passing through the firewall?

[Mike Hughes]

Actinic has a few ways of taking credit cards. One uses some java to encrypt the customers data and this could cause a delay. A payment Service Provider (PSP) is a third party (such as paypal, protx, secpay, etc) who do the processing for you.

If the delay happens with the 'invoice' payment then it clearly has nothing to do with java or the handover to the PSP. Which eliminates some of possibilities.

The only thing actinic is doing at this stage when you select pay by invoice is to create the order file, encrypt it and send a few emails.

Things you can try include:

- Making sure you have mod_perl installed
- Making sure enough memory is available to actinic.

I have to admit that I've no idea what your firewall is doing. I assume it's not preventing actinic from writing files to the acatalog directory?

If I were you I'd contact actinic support directly as they should be willing to help a host sort out some hosting issues.

Mike

[jont]

Doesn't the Advanced User Guide have some guidelines in the back for setting up servers? May be worth checking out.

[mattm]

Doesn't the Advanced User Guide have some guidelines in the back for setting up servers? May be worth checking out.

The only thing I see that is relevant is this snippet from the Adv doc:

Java applet (when security has been set to "Actinic inbuilt encryption")

Maybe the Java aplet is going over some abnormal port? And how can I verify Actinic is using built in encryption?

Olderscot,

Thanks for your input. Maybe if they are using a PSP service, it's trying to communicate over some other port?

[Mike Hughes]

Maybe the Java aplet is going over some abnormal port? And how can I verify Actinic is using built in encryption?

The in built encryption is the java bit for encrypting credit card details when using actinics built in Credit card capture screen. This only applies when a customer is using this method to pay so doesn't seem to apply here. Definitely not when using pay by invoice.

The handover to the PSP is almost always straightforward. Which PSP is being used if any?

You could also look in the actinic error log on their site (in acatalog/error.err) and see if there are any unusual error message in there.

Mike

[mattm]

Mark,

Ah very nice info on that error log! Here is what I'm seeing:

Program = ORDERSCR, Program version = 487   , HTTP Server = Apache/1.3.37 (Unix) mod_auth_, Return code = 999                 , Date and Time = 2007/07/26 15:17, Internal Errors = Unable to connect to the mail socket (Connection timed out)

Now, where are the settings to define the mail server? Or could it be changed to use the /bin/sendmail similar to a FormMail.php/Form post action?

[NormanRouxel]

Matt

Ask your Actinic user to go to Advanced / Network Setup and Export the settings to a text file. Tell them to send that file to you (obscuring passwords if necessary). That file will contain the SMTP settings they are using. These settings relate to a perl script running on the server and are nothing to do with the Actinic PC.

[mattm]

Norman,

Thanks - will do.