1and1 standard hosting problems

[newshopbloke]

Hi all,

Yesterday I was praising my 1and1 hosting package for speed / ease of actinic upload..................and then I turned ordering on and it all went downhill.

I got all kinds of actinic error messages, the likes I have never seen before, strange messages about the wrong kind of server - wrong path messages - cgi bin error messages etc etc.

I then manually deleted Actinic off the server in desperation but could not clean out the 'logs' folder, which is chock full of files that dont look right, loads of gifs in there too ?

I managed to get an upload after this but the checkout buttons just bounced me back to the shop page I was on. This is when I thought it might be to do with my heavily modified 'smart' theme so I made a backup of site 1 folder and reinstalled actinic, this made no difference and my backup of site1 folder has now gone missing from 'my documents' :( Gutted, because I put many hours into that theme.

Is there a 'reset hosting package' button in my 1and1 control panel ? If so I cannot find it.

I want to start all over again with a non-modified actinic shop, and if I can get it running it will stay non-modified because its too much grief and im convinced the Actinic software does not like modified sites at all.

Cheers

[wjcampbe]

Can you confirm 1 & 1 Business Linux? If not, what package are you on?

Please post your network settings [with usernames and passwords deleted] and one of the many successful 1 & 1 users will be able to help.

[newshopbloke]

Hi Bill,

Oddly enough ive tried one of your fixes from a previous post of yours - create actinic and cgi-bin folders manually via ftp and set chmod permissions. Unfortunately it didnt work for me and I have been getting this message since last night "Your web server is a windows NT IIS server and it appears to be configured in such a way that you do not have access to your web root directory" ?? Well thats news to me because I do have access.

Im on the the 1and1 Home package, cheapest one available. It has previously uploaded ok to this package but I never tried doing a 'test' order and testing checkout.

Theres a load of files in the logs folder that should not be there, but I cannot delete them.

Cheers

[Duncan Rounding]

I'm not sure what your current upload problems are but I don't think Perl is included in the Linux Home package - you may need to upgrade to the Linux Business Package.

[newshopbloke]

Thanks for the reply.

I originally thought this but surely it would stop me from uploading the site and browsing through it ? I have already uploaded and browsed previously.

Ive never had a 'path to perl' error.

Im going to try calling them and asking for a reset.

Cheers

[wjcampbe]

If you are on Windows hosting, then at the same time as you check the Perl status, you might ask them to create the Virtual cgi-bin pointed at the 'real' cgi-bin folder.

Linux Business really is much easier unless you are really familiar with IIS.

[newshopbloke]

Hi all,

I have spoken to 1and1 tech support and they say my hosting should work with Actinic although ive heard all kinds of people say that before without even knowing what actinic is. He reset the server and said all should be ok.

Unfortunately all is most definitely not ok and im fed up to the back teeth with Actinic upload problems, here are my settings which are probably different from the last time it worked:

HTTPPROXYMODE 0
HTTPPROXYADDRESS
HTTPPROXYPORT 80
HTTPPROXYUSER
HTTPPROXYPASSWORD
FTPPROXYMODE 0
FTPPROXYADDRESS
FTPPROXYPORT 21
FTPPROXYUSER
FTPPROXYPASSWORD
SCRIPTID 1
SCRIPTEXT .pl
SMTPHOST auth.smtp.oneandone.co.uk
WEBSITEURL
IGNOREPASSIVEERRORS true
USERELATIVECGIURLS true
PATHTOPERL /usr/bin/perl
SMTPAUTHREQUIRED false
SMTPUSERNAME
SMTPPASSWORD
CATALOGURL http://s164904484.websitehome.co.uk/acatalog/
CGIBINURL http://s164904484.websitehome.co.uk/cgi-bin/
PATHFROMCGITOCATALOG /acatalog/
CODEBASE ./
FTPHOST ***********
FTPUSERNAME ***********
FTPPASSWORD ***********
PATHTOCGIBIN cgi-bin/
USEPASSIVEFTP true
FTPPATHFROMCGITOCATALOG

If anyone feels like helping I would appreciate it because this is pushing me 1 step further to looking for another shop software package, and we wouldnt want that would we :)

Cheers

[Mike Hughes]

Please check with 1and1 as looking at their hosting description 'perl' doesn't come with the home package but needs the business package.

Mike

[newshopbloke]

Thanks for that tip.

Am I right in saying that without perl on the server there is no way that the shop would ever upload properly and browse properly ? If so then perl is available with this package because I have already used it and had the shop live on the web.

Cheers

[Big_Dave]

I host with 1and1. You need a Linux Business Pro package as far as I know (its what I've got). You don't have to tweak anything. All you may need to do is create a 'CGI-BIN' folder on their sever. This is easily done with 1and1's GUI.

I'm sure your problems stem from your package (perhaps)?

I received Actinic on a cd. My Business Pro package was set up the same day. I had no experience of either but was online selling same day. Total set up time = 15 mins.

I'm only explaining this to highlight that with the correct package and set up, Actinic sets up and installs very easily indeed.

[pinbrook]

Am I right in saying that without perl on the server there is no way that the shop would ever upload properly and browse properly ?

No one will be able to buy from the shop without Perl.

The shopping cart is handled by the perl scripts, as are search script and more/

You said 1And1 reset the server for you, does this mean you have yoour own dedicated server?

Actinic will work on Windows servers, you just need abit more skill to get it to work though.

If you are on shared hosting ,unless you need a windows package for other parts of your site ie asp, you are better off hosting on linux.

[newshopbloke]

Hi all,

There appears to be no perl with this basic home package as mentioned by Mike, even though tech support said there was.

The reason why im so confused is that the whole entire shop uploaded 2 days ago to the exact same hosting package without the slightest hitch, and did it in record breaking time with no errors whatsoever.

I think maybe Actinic managed to access an area that im not allowed to access and its now been spotted by a 1and1 bot which is now kicking Actinic off the server everytime I try to re-upload.

Looks like more money has to be spent just to get a bit of script installed :( And pay for a load of extras that I dont need like 2 mysql db's etc.

Oh well, hope that all makes sense.

Thanks

[Duncan Rounding]

Actinic will work with the Linux Business package or above but not lower. Although almost double what your paying now the 1and1 Bus package is still good value for money at about 8.99 a month.

Even though you were previously able to upload, as mentioned you would not have been able to run the required scripts without Perl.

The settings I use for my 1and1 domains are attached.

[newshopbloke]

Thanks Duncan,

Im now trying to upload to a server that I know 100% supports Actinic and im still having trouble !

I using almost identical settings to the ones shown in your attachment and I keep getting cgi errors. Im just wondering if Actinics files have become corrupted on my system because im testing on a server that has run the shop before.

Its all very frustrating and ive wasted so much of my time.
I will be giving 1and1 the boot in 6 weeks when its up for renewal because I think its a downright liberty to force someone to upgrade to a much more expensive plan just for a bit of scripting.

My other host offers all these server side 'bolts ons' as standard and starts at just £12 p.a.

Thanks

[Sally Dickson]

Actinic will work on Windows servers, you just need abit more skill to get it to work though.

Can you point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

HTTPPROXYMODE 0
HTTPPROXYADDRESS
HTTPPROXYPORT 80
HTTPPROXYUSER
HTTPPROXYPASSWORD
FTPPROXYMODE 0
FTPPROXYADDRESS
FTPPROXYPORT 21
FTPPROXYUSER
FTPPROXYPASSWORD
SCRIPTID 115
SCRIPTEXT .pl
SMTPHOST auth.smtp.1and1.co.uk
WEBSITEURL http://www.smileyworld.com
IGNOREPASSIVEERRORS true
USERELATIVECGIURLS false
PATHTOPERL /usr/bin/perl
USEENHANCEFTP true
FTPCLIENTTIMEOUT 15000
FTPRETRYDELAY 3000
FTPSILENT false
FTPMAXRETRIES 3
FTPCONNECTTIMEOUT 25000
SMTPAUTHREQUIRED true
SMTPUSERNAME
SMTPPASSWORD
CATALOGURL http://www.smileyworld.com/shop/acatalog/
CGIBINURL http://www.smileyworld.com/cgi-bin/
PATHFROMCGITOCATALOG ./shop/acatalog/
CODEBASE ./
FTPHOST 87.106.28.89
FTPUSERNAME
FTPPASSWORD
PATHTOCGIBIN ./
USEPASSIVEFTP false
FTPPATHFROMCGITOCATALOG

[cdicken]

Sally

I suggest you take this up with Actinic Support (http://www.actinic.co.uk/support/register.htm) via email as they can actually log onto your server and figure out your settings on your behalf.