Anonymous users – binary/garbage – Ctrl+F5

Hello,

I have run into a bizarre issue that may not even be related to s2member, but, appears to have some dependency on it. Here are the symptoms…

The url is http://www.rasika.org. You can click on this url and navigate around the site just fine. However, doing a [Ctrl + F5] on any page causes binary gibberish to appear on the screen. Refreshing causes the gibberish to stay unchanged. The only way to get back to the proper page is to either restart the browser or clear the browser cache for the domain.

Now, for logged in users, hitting [Ctrl + F5] merely refreshes the screen (as it should). No binary gibberish at all. Here is a test login account – zzzguest/gu3st – that can be used to test this.

Versions – WordPress: 3.3.1 and S2Member Pro: 120309.

I have no idea when this problem started or what caused it. Happened to notice it today. Haven’t changed anything in WordPress admin in at least a month.

I would appreciate any help that anybody can provide in troubleshooting/fixing this. If needed, I can grant access to the WP Dashboard.

Thanks.

Hi Ravi,

I am unable to reproduce this problem. I browsed around the site, refreshed the pages several times, and never saw any “binary gibberish”. It sounds like the problem could be related to your computer or your web browser; have you tested the site on another computer?

Hi Raam,

I can reproduce it even now on pretty much any computer i try it on – tried it on 3 different computers on 2 separate networks (2 PCs at home and 1 at work). Browsers I am currently using are IE9 and Chrome 18 (or 19 or 23 or whatever is the latest :)).

I can reproduce this on the Home page – http://www.rasika.org/. Initial load is OK. F5 refresh is OK. Ctrl+F5 refresh is what generates the “binary gibberish”. And once I get the binary stuff, the only way to get the correct page to show up is to restart the browser or clear the cache.

Did you try a Ctrl+F5 or were you just trying to refresh using the browser’s Refresh/Reload button and/or F5?

Also, the “binary gibberish” issue does not occur if you are logged in.

Thanks,
Ravi.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by  Ravi Sathyanarayana.

Hi Ravi,

I see the problem now. I’m on a Mac and I had to hold down Shift and press the refresh button on my browser (I’m using Chrome).

This problem looks related to your web server environment. Have you contacted your web host to see if they can diagnose it for you? Inspecting the web server logs should lead you in the direction of the problem.

Hi Raam,

I will contact the webhost next. Before I do so, I wanted to do due diligence and make sure it’s not anything in WordPress or any of the plugins.

The reason I suspected s@Member as a possible cause is because the error does not occur when you are logged in. In my first post, I have included credentials for a guest account. Logging in as that user (Level 0) fixes this issue.

Does this seem even remotely connected to s2Member (or is the authenticated vs. anonymous user behavior difference just a red herring) ?

Thanks,
Ravi.

I opened a Support Ticket with the webhost and after investigating, here’s their response:

I have checked this and recreated the issue. I could see the below error message in the 
logs while refreshing the site http://www.rasika.org/.

[04-May-2012 00:39:20 UTC] PHP Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already 
sent by (output started at 
/home/rasikaor/public_html/wp-content/plugins/s2member/includes/classes/files-in.inc.php(387) : eval()'d code:1) 
in /home/rasikaor/public_html/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 866

It seems the issue with coding. So could you please check this with the developer and let 
us know if you need any further assistance.

Can you please help resolve this. Thanks.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by  Ravi Sathyanarayana.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by  Ravi Sathyanarayana.

Ravi, did you edit that file in any way? It sounds as if you had a space or newline outside of the PHP block. Have you tried replacing the file with a fresh copy of it from the zip archive? http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/s2member/

Hi Cristián,

That’s awesome! Replacing the file fixed it!

I had not edited that file at all and I am the only person with FTP access to the server (well, other than the web host obviously). I have no idea how it “changed”. But, it’s modified timestamp was May 1st, 2012. All the other files in that folder have the same date as the downloaded version – March 9th, 2012.

I am surprised and a little concerned that a file on the server was modified in some way. But, that is not an s2Member issue. So, I’ll dig into it.

Thanks again for your help!

Thanks for the update! Glad that fixed it.

Yes, please let us know what you find regarding that. You host may help track it down in the logs. If there’s anything we can improve to avoid the problem in the future, we’ll be glad to do it, so let us know what you dig up. Thanks!

A new twist.

The “binary garbage” error has resurfaced. The error_log, however, does NOT log the error that was logged before.

[04-May-2012 20:50:21 UTC] PHP Warning:  Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/rasikaor/public_html/wp-content/plugins/s2member/includes/classes/files-in.inc.php(387) : eval()'d code:1) in /home/rasikaor/public_html/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 866

For the heck of it, I FTPd a clean copy of files-inc.inc.php over and sure enough, still get the error when I do “Ctrl + F5”.

After messing with it for a bit, I found that I am able to get rid of the error (consistently, for now) by disabling the “Compress Pages” option in WP Super Cache. Here is the description for that option:

Compress pages so they’re served more quickly to visitors. (Recommended)
Compression is disabled by default because some hosts have problems with compressed files. Switching it on and off clears the cache.

I am running the most recent versions of s2Member Pro and “WP Super Cache”. I would like to re-enable the “Compress Pages” option in WP Super Cache as it does seem to speed up page loading. Is it possible/likely that this option is causing the the “binary garbage” issue without logging an error to the error_log?

Thanks,
Ravi.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by  Ravi Sathyanarayana.

Ah I see, so it was that causing it. Thanks for sharing your findings!

Here’s a post that may interest you too because: http://www.primothemes.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=6309#p62322

Not exactly about that plugin, but very related, and it could help you prevent other trouble.

I hope it helps.