PayPal Instant Payment Notifications (IPN) Failing

[stualk]

It's always been my understanding that auto return should be turned off too Mike, and that's what we've done for some time now. However, the very minute we turned it on a couple of weeks ago and put in the correct URL our PayPal problems were resolved. That also solved an age-old problem whereby people ordering through PayPal were not getting order confirmation emails.

I think it depends on peoples circumstances and setup but I guess there's no harm in trying it with auto return turned on. If PayPal orders are being submitted correctly with it turned off then there's not much to loose. That was my view anyway and I'm glad we tried it.

Ultimately, this highlights the need for people to have Actinic support contracts. The more basic problems and gremlins can be resolved on here but when it's something as complex as this that depend on your setup it's not easy for forum users to solve peoples problems.

[Mike Hughes]

I agree with you 100% Stuart.

This stuff is complicated and my concern is that the more we move away from the settings that should work, the more complicated the whole issue becomes and the harder it gets for Actinic to understand what the problems are and fix them.

Of course it also opens up areas for them to look at and understand why one thing works and another doesn't. I'm just not seeing any signs that Actinic are looking into this or even aware that there's an issue.

Mike

[stualk]

I think they are aware and if you speak to support they're actually pretty pro-active on this, and strictly speaking this isn't a problem of Actinic's creation. But I agree that there ought to be some sort of statement on the matter to highlight exactly what people need to do, even if that statements simply says "There's a problem with PayPal - the solution depends on your setup, please contact us"

The settings that "should" work may have changed as a result of this problem I think. As we've both said, auto return should have always been turned off in the past. I know of quite a few people now whereby their PayPal orders aren't submitted correctly unless auto return is turned ON. So this could be the one big thing to come out of this if it's affecting everyone. If so, a statement on the matter is definitely needed, otherwise people won't know to change those settings as they've always worked successfully in the past.

[pmsupport]

Hi All,

With regards to the best settings for PayPal, please see below:

IPN should be disabled, as per:

http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=48353

Auto Return should also be turned off, as per:

http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=45024

If the solution in the KB article below does not solve the problem of PayPal orders downloading into pending PSP, and you have verified that the Perl modules suggested are installed on your server, you should contact Actinic support:

http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=48463

I hope this helps

Paul

[pmsupport]

The options available to solve this problem.

So to confirm, at present, the only options available to solve this problem are as follows:

1) Apply the fix explained in this KB article:

http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=48463

2) If that does not work, and you have verified that the required Perl modules are installed, you will need to move hosting. The hosting does not have to be Actinic hosting, it can be any provider that meets the requirements, although Actinic hosting is the only provider we can guarantee solves the problem.

3) If you do not wish to move hosting for any reason, you should contact Actinic support and we can investigate why 1) has not worked for you.

[cactus02]

Stuart, I admire you to keep a polite attitude regarding the way Actinic is treating this Paypal problem. You just made a good « résumé » of the situation.
I would add... if you have a good technical background, you may try, at your own risk, some of the workarounds presented here.
If you're not, you're on your own and waiting for them to bring a « simple » solution... We're waiting since September 17.

[leehack]

That's incredibly unfair Bernard, this is not something they have done wrong, it's something Paypal changed, denied all knowledge and actinic have then with substantial contact found out that in fact Paypal did make a change.

If your supplier let you down on something, would you like to effectively be called useless because of it and also accept said label. You need to a get a grip.

They simply cannot release something half baked that hopefully fixes some stuff, without rigorous testing across multple versions and more importantly nail down what exactly has been changed and what they need to do to fix it across many different platforms.

Direct your frustration at Paypal, they started and continue to cause this bloody mess! It was bugger all to do with Actinic, who are frantically working to try solve it.

[Mike Hughes]

I'd like to be sure everyone is clear on this too. My discussions about IPN and support are directed at trying to ensure we don't muddy the water on the question of what the Paypal IPN settings should be.

I think Paul has made this clear in his post above.

In terms of the main problem we have here, paypal changed their SSL protocols so they no longer work with the version Actinic ship as a solution for those who's hosts don't install the standard set.

Getting your host to install the standard SSL set fixes the probem. Doing the install yourself on a VPS/Dedicated server fixes the problem. Many of us had no problem as the standard set was already installed.

AFAIK Actinic are still pursuing the issue to see what else they can do, but there are already plenty of options for getting around the issue if it's causing you a problem.

Mike

[sazoo]

Getting your host to install the standard SSL set fixes the problem. Doing the install yourself on a VPS/Dedicated server fixes the problem. Many of us had no problem as the standard set was already installed.

Not quite the case.

I have been speaking to support throughout and followed there instructions entirely. I have a 1and1 VPS Server.

I installed myself the three modules Actinic requested.
Rebooted my server.
IPN Disabled.
Auto return has been on and then off as per Actinic instructions (a day between each change to allow them to enable option fully)

I set up a PayPal account in my wife's name so I could test the sites but with normal orders going into pending then I did not think this would make a difference (just thought maybe the customers are not following the instructions when placing an order).

So basically it still does not work and I have tried all the options open to me as per Actinic instructions.

Saying that I am very pleased with the response Actinic support have provided. They gave me files to upload and verify if scripts are installed and other options to try so always pro-active. As most people have solved their problem by following the instructions I appreciate that there will be a few of us out there who have to suffer for a while longer until support manage to find a way round this problem. I am sure Actinic are fed up with all these posts and time they have had to contribute to a PayPal issue and the delicate conversations they have had to have with PayPal so not to offend them. How ever much cheesed off I am and believe me this is a real inconvenience for me as I run five sites which all take PayPal, I just have to wait it out as I am sure Support are working on this and want this to be another resolved issue they can put to bed. Every issue I have had with Actinic has been resolved over the years so I am confident that this will just be another issue of the past.

Pessimistic eh?

[stualk]

Hi Sazoo,

- When you turned auto return on in PayPal what URL did you specify as the auto return URL?
- Also, is the only PayPal problem you're experiencing the one whereby orders go into PSP pending? (or are no order confirmation emails being received either?)

[Mike Hughes]

I wonder what the difference is between your setup and Nigel Berman's on a 1and1 Virtual Server:

Post 238

BIg thanks to Alex at Bitpod.

We now have Net:SSL and Crypt:SSLeay installed on our 1and1 virtual server (CentOS 5 with Plesk 8.X (64-bit)).
Took about 20 mins (including time working out whether we had it installed already or not).

Hoping that's fixed it.

post 241

It works!
Test order went into pending, as it should.

Thanks all.

Mike

[stualk]

Mustn't be hosting related Mike is my assumption. Given how turning auto return on and specifying a valid auto return address worked instantly for us it seems that can be the only other thing to do, in my opinion. Just need to make sure the auto return URL is spot on though.

[sazoo]

That's worrying, no one is replying?

I tried to verify the install of the 3 modules reqired and can only confirm two were correctly installed. Crypt::SSLeay and Net::SSLeay.

I did this by trying to reinstall them and it comes up saying that they are already installed.

However, when I try to do the same thing for Net::SSL it says "no package perl-Net-SSL available which is confusing. When we run willow.pl from our site it says its installed but not sure if I did originally or already some sort of version was on the 1and1 VPS Server.

Can anyone verify for me the exact line I should type into putty to get the install to work including the correct upper and lower case letters as I know its case sensitive.

I used:
"yum install perl-Net-SSL"

Was that the right line as it did not work. Maybe the module does not exist on my server? If not, where can I download it to install from my hard drive?

[gcamley]

Net::SSL is installed by Crypt::SSLeay.

To verify the installed modules see http://community.actinic.com/showpos...&postcount=173

If after confirming that the modules are installed you still do not get the Payment Authorisations then check with PayPal that they have not disabled IPN due to constant failures. There was some discussion earlier in the thread about PayPal sending warning emails stating that IPN would be disabled if the problem preventing IPNs was not fixed.

[sazoo]

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Gordon for your advice.

I confirmed that all three perl modules are definately installed.

So really only issue it could be is the IPN notification - mine was disabled following all the emails from PayPal saying that notifications were not getting through.

After a 50 minute call to PayPal and lots of tests with various options a real simple solution!

Despite what Actinic said about turning IPN notification off you need to turn them on and put in the Notification URL something. I have several sites so could not put one of my web addresses in as the other sites would then go to the wrong address.

So we put in "https://www.paypal.com" and enabled the IPN Notification and guess what? It Worked! Simple eh?

All sites work perfectly and also now receive order confirmation emails for all sites after I have done test orders.

Just like to say how helpful the Actinic Community is and thanks for everyone who contributed to the post and those who specifically helped me to find the problem.

Yippppeeeee.

Now back to serious work - increasing sales