Incomplete downloads

[drbyte]

Hey Jason

Not sure how to explain this but When I upload a zip file larger than 100MB to the s2member file folder and press the download link it only downloads about 240k then it stops with a bad archive. Anything below 100mb it works fine. I thought it maybe my box config but everything seems to be OK. To test, I did move the same file under a test folder outside the s2member and it works fine/no problems (downloads the whole file). Only when I move that file under s2member it wont let me. The original file that I was trying to upload is about 180MB

Thank You

Sam

[Jason Caldwell]

Hi Sam. Thanks for reporting this.

I'm aware of this bug/"limitation". I say limitation, because this problem stems from the fact that most hosting companies impose conservative limits on script execution time. In order for s2Member to stay alive for a 100MB+ download, it has to be given the ability to do so. ( max_execution_time = 0 ) [ see: http://www.php.net/manual/en/info.confi ... ution-time ].

Actually, this is not set at exactly 100MB, it could be 30MB, or it could be 200MB. It just depends on your host, and the speed of the download to the end user. Customers on a dial-up connection will have a bigger issue with large file downloads than a customer on broadband; because it takes them longer on dial-up.

s2Member tries to grant this permission ( max_execution_time = 0 ) all by itself (during a download) but with some hosting companies, this is impossible to do. For instance, GoDaddy, MediaTemple, HostGator, BlueHost all have upper limits that even s2Member cannot work around.

@TODO :: The long-term solution ( I think ) is to find a way for s2Member to grant permission through cookie authentication ( specifically for file downloads ), working in conjunction with an .htaccess file. This way the downloads could be handled without feeding them through a PHP script; thereby circumventing this limitation.

If anyone has suggestions, please feel free to share them.

[Jason Caldwell]

Also, just to note. On a dedicated server, this is NOT an issue. Almost any dedicated server will not be subject to the upper limits set forth by shared hosting services. On a dedicated server, s2Member's attempt to set max_execution_time=0 would be successful.

[drbyte]

Hey Jason, Thank you for the response. I tried to host my site on a dedicated windows box using Parallels Plesk Pane but quickly gave up when I learned all the stuff that I have to install to make WP work like it suppose to. I also had a very hard time giving permissions and trying to use the pretty links which was a nightmare, anyway to make the long story short, DO NOT, Do not use Windows box to host PHP scripts and keep away from Plesk...Use Cpanel instead.....We Wov U Linux

I went back to shared hosting but most of the site is hosted on Amazon Cloud servers for fast response. No issues at all till this limitations came up. I called them up and they took care of it.

Thank you again for the hard work. I still have to give you the site info to activate the Pro version. Just waiting on Paypal.

Sam

[Jason Caldwell]

Awesome. Thanks for reporting back on this topic. Much appreciated.

I still have to give you the site info to activate the Pro version. Just waiting on Paypal.

No problem. Just shoot me an email once you're ready.