Home › Forums › Leslie Lewis
About: Leslie Lewis
Sorry, I've not written a description yet. I'll get to it soon!
Topics I'm Subscribed To
Topic | Count | Last Reply |
---|---|---|
v120213 this am-site went down
By: Leslie Lewis in: Community Forum |
voices: 4 replies: 11 |
Topics I've Started
Topic | Count | Last Reply |
---|---|---|
v120213 this am-site went down
By: Leslie Lewis in: Community Forum |
voices: 4 replies: 11 |
My Latest Replies (From Various Topics)
Author | Replies |
---|---|
Author | Replies |
Posted: Thursday Feb 23rd, 2012 at 4:48 am #6102 | |
|
|
Thank you so much, Jason. You are the best! Leslie |
|
Posted: Wednesday Feb 15th, 2012 at 2:14 pm #5237 | |
|
|
I’m sorry, Jason. I don’t understand what to do with either option that you suggested. I guess this just isn’t my strength. ID: 680585 Domain: ldlewis.com Subject: Wordpress s2 member requires Apache 2 “I was able to fix the problem for you. It was caused by the following lines placed into your .htaccess file during the update of this plugin: # BEGIN s2Member GZIP exclusions I have disabled them and now your website is loading fine. You can check the results on your end: I questioned the lead author of S2member and he suggested that I leave siteground if you can’t upgrade to an Apache that hasn’t been in this format since 2000. This is what Jason suggested: “Thanks for sharing those details from Siteground. I can’t say that I sympathize with them in this regard. Apache 1.x is VERY old news, and this is a perfect case-in-point why Apache 1.x should be upgraded as soon as humanly possible. Apache v2.x has been available since the year 2000, and was adopted fully around 2004. http://www.apachehaus.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=119&Itemid=104 As a developer who constantly works with security-related issues and PCI compliance, I can tell you there are more security issues related to Apache 1.x than just mod_status. While this company might be actively working with a custom variation of this software, I can’t advise that you run s2Member with this host. You might try MediaTemple.net, HostGator, BlueHost, or another WordPress-recommended hosting provider. See: http://wordpress.org/hosting/” I’ve been very happy with using S2 member as a way of making some of the documents for our site, member only documents. I’ve also been very happy with siteground. Now, I don’t know how to resolve the incompatability of you both. Do you have any suggestions? Can I alone upgrade to Apache 2? Thanks, Leslie Replies: 2012-02-14 05:51pm by Atanas.S – Hello Leslie, Thank you for contacting our Help Desk. The version of the Apache web service is indeed 1.3.42 on all of our shared and semi dedicated servers, however it is custom build and we can not replace it on our servers as it has more security mechanisms and hack prevention systems inside it than any Apache 2.x service. If your application requires the usage of Apache 2.x the only solution for you will be to upgrade to a dedicated server, which you can do through your customer area -> Order. Best Regards, S2 member upgraded their software with this modification yesterday: Updating S2 member caused our site to crash and necessitated getting help from one of your great technitians, Stanislav B., and a fee. The issue seems to be Apache 1.3. You guys may be great at making a secure site with Apache 1.3 but developers expect Apache 2 (evidently used exclusively since 2004) to be compatable with their software. Your technitian, Atanas S., informed me yesterday that upgrading to a dedicated server is my only option for becoming compatable with S2 member. We are not a large, income producing site. We already pay siteground $200 a year for hosting, domain name, nightly backups, and an add on slot. I feel very annoyed that you want even more money to let us access Apache 2 which is used in my local host test site, at WordPress, at S2 member, and I have no idea where I will next find a conflict. I would appreciate any recommendations that you have. I can’t update my S2 member plugin and I can’t test locally for what might happen from Apache 1.3. Thank you, Leslie Thank you for the update. It is very unlikely that the issue is indeed due to Apache version difference, since the actual operation of the web server differs very little between 1.3 and 2.x versions. The two major releases are very different, but in the way they work internally. What you and the script sees however is pretty much the same — a request is made to a given page, the request is being ‘routed’ to the PHP engine, it then replies to the server and the response is given back to the requester browser. What caused the issue (and I’m not trying to point any fingers at someone) is that the developers of the component did not actually check what is the underlying software they are running on. It is much like installing motor boat engine in an airplane — they just don’t work the same. Instead you would need to just check if you are on a motor boat and install the appropriate engine for that type of vehicle. What broke the website are the rules added to the .htaccess file which are only readable by Apache2. In fact, they are only needed by Apache version 2.x, since there is no mod_deflate for Apache 1.3 and there was no issue to be solved at the very first place. While I do not question the developers set of requirements, I cannot help but disagree with their point of view, when you have reported the problem. What they actually told you is: “We are too lazy to make sure our software works as expected on a different version. It is completely doable, but regardless we will not do it and since we are too lazy you should change your host to save us some work”. Again, I’m not pointing fingers or blaming anyone — just my thoughts on the situation. If you are still experiencing any difficulties running the software, please let me know and I will check what can be done so it will work properly. If you have any other questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact us! Best Regards, I just don’t see how I can update S2 member knowing what happened yesterday morning. Can you assure me that it won’t happen again? Can you be working with me while I try to update it in case the update crashes my site again? I don’t know enough to know what is going to crash the site again. I’ve loved S2 member. It took a considerable amount of time and energy to perfect the system as it is running now. Teachers depend on us. Instead of pointing fingers maybe you could lead me through a solution. I’ve also had great success working with Siteground. But this problem I don’t know how to resolve. Thanks, Leslie As we make our site look good we check out how it looks in IE 10, 9, 8 and 7 but don’t check out 6 or before. Nor do we make sure it looks good in Netscape Navigator or Early Firefox. I really don’t believe that s2 member is doing anything that resembles lazy. Thank you again, Leslie Let me know if there is anything specific I can help you with. I’m afraid that I cannot provide you with any kind of guarantee that a future upgrade of this particular software will not cause any issues, simply because we are not developing this software and it does not depend on us. If you have any other questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact us! Best Regards, I can’t use S2 member on siteground it seems. Most everyone that has helped me at siteground has been helpful and an excellent resource. This woman, Val M., seems more interested in calling the S2 member developers “lazy” then in helping me be able to use siteground for my site. If your Apache system is so much like Apache 2 then there should be no problem … but there is a problem and it appears that you are not interested in accomodating my needs. Val M. is clearly not of the same quality of individuals that I have had the pleasure of dealing with before. I will need to find another server. Sad. Leslie 2012-02-15 11:41am by val – Hello, I’m sorry to hear that you are not satisfied with my replies, yet you haven’t actually stated what exactly is the issue you are experiencing, hence why I’ve asked you if there is anything specific that you would need help with. I can’t really help you if you only state the obvious, which is that we are using Apache 1.3. As explained earlier in this ticket Apache 1.3 acts much like Apache 2.x versions and the difference is how it handles the tasks internally. The problem comes due to the fact that the developers of S2 member plugin are using code which is only understood by the Apache 2 and they do not check if they are actually on Apache 2 server. Moreover, the .htaccess rules are fixing an issue which only occurs with Apache2 and your website was not affected at all. Yet, the developers of the plugin decided to put the code and break your website without even checking if they actually needed to do this. To sum it: the solution, according to the developers of the plugin, is to move to a host using Apache2, where the website would have been broken because of the gzip compression and then successfully fixed by the introduction of the .htaccess rules, regardless that you didn’t really needed this at very first place. It doesn’t sound right to me. I’m sorry that you do not find me of the same quality of individuals as my colleagues simply because I’ve tried to explain you what the issue is. I probably shouldn’t have done so. Best Regards, |
|
Posted: Tuesday Feb 14th, 2012 at 6:14 pm #5080 | |
|
|
Last thing. This is what siteground says about using apache 1.3. So, siteground isn’t going to change their apache version. “I’m sure you’re not the first person who wonders why we still support Apache 1.3 when Apache 2.2 has already been launched. To give you a precise answer, we have asked our system architects for a detailed explanation. Their explanation is as follows: – We support Apache 1.3 internally. This means that we have a team of very experienced system administrators who maintain our version of Apache. Even if a security vulnerability is found, our administrators will immediately apply a fix ensuring that all of our servers run a secure Apache version. – The only difference between Apache 1.3.41 and 1.3.42 is in mod_status. However, we are using a customized, in-house built version of mod_status designed for our specific needs. This means that our Apache version does not have any mod_status issues and does not need to be upgraded to 1.3.42. – Setup-wise, web applications don’t care much about what version of Apache runs on the server. What most web apps need is a web server and as long as it runs properly, they run properly as well. We host numerous Joomla installations on our servers and I can assure you that all of them run without any problems on our Apache version. – Compared to Apache 2.0 and 2.2, Apache 1.3 offers better performance. It also meets all of our requirements for a stable, fast and reliable web server, this is why we don’t think Apache 2 is the better alternative, not for now at least. To give you a simple example of Apache 1.3’s stability and usability – most of Yahoo’s servers run Apache 1.3. I hope you’ll agree that this is an irrefutable proof of Apache 1.3’s qualities as a web server. About the MySQL version, it has also been enhanced by our Operations Department engineers with extra features and additional security and stability. All the applications that we offer for installation have been tested and confirmed to work flawlessly with this customized MySQL version. If you have a specific issue with your script we will recommend you to post a ticket through your Help Desk. In this way my colleagues will be able to initiate an investigation and assist you promptly. |
|
Posted: Tuesday Feb 14th, 2012 at 5:31 pm #5067 | |
|
|
Jason, just so that you know what siteground had to say I’m enclosing what the technition found at sitground. I’ll try to get them to upgrade Apache. Thanks, Leslie 2012-02-14 06:22am by Stanislav.B – Hello Leslie, I was able to fix the problem for you. It was caused by the following lines placed into your .htaccess file during the update of this plugin: # BEGIN s2Member GZIP exclusions I have disabled them and now your website is loading fine. You can check the results on your end: If you need further assistance don’t hesitate to contact us again. Stanislav B. |
|
Posted: Tuesday Feb 14th, 2012 at 1:20 pm #5051 | |
|
|
Hi Jason, Siteground is my hosting service and they are using Apache 1.3.42. This morning early I went to WordPress and saw that there was an update for s2 member. So, I updated s2 and the site crashed. There was no mention to update my member pro account. After siteground restored my site to last night’s saved configuration (for a fee) that message was on wordpress. I’m definitely not going to update my pro account until you give me the ok that the site won’t crash again. We’ve loved s2 member and until today have had no problems at all. Thank you. Leslie |