badge disappeared – our server is blocked

A few days ago, probably during an upgrade but not sure exactly, the s2members badge stopped appearing on my website. The code is there but it never loads the badge, almost like a time-out error. The info bar says contacting s2members.com for ages and eventually stops. The website is http://www.abookabout.co.uk and the badge should be in the footer on the RHS. It also doesn’t appear to be a plugin issue as the problem is still there with all plugins deactivated.

I have followed all the instructions from the s2Members badge knowledgebase article. Tests return a 1, the logs are disabled and folders empty etc. The scanner says that there is an error with CURL, however I have contacted my hosting company and they say that both CURL and fopen URL are enabled. They have run a traceroute and think that websharks-inc.com may be blocking our server their end.

Does anyone know why this is suddenly happening and what I can do to make it right?

As far as I’m aware, s2Member does not come in contact with websharks-inc.com for anything…

Especially for the badge, that wouldn’t make sense.

Do you have logs enabled? Check if you have logs enabled under Dashboard -› s2Member® -› Log Files (Debug) -› Logging Configuration.

– Eduan

Thanks for the reply Eduan, it is a strange problem. The log files are disabled and the folders are empty. The error I’m receiving from the scanner is this:

[ERROR] cURL Extension / Or fopen() URL
One or more HTTPS connection tests failed when connecting to:
https://www.websharks-inc.com/robots.txt

So I’m not sure why it’s getting stuck when looking for this file, or even why it needs it.

Perhaps it means something to you?

Thanks again.
Nicki

Hello Nicki,

Please make double sure that you do have it enabled, since for some reason it’s having problems.

The robots.txt file, I’m pretty sure that’s what’s used by Google and such, can’t remember for sure…

– Eduan