Purchase access to protected page not working since last upg

[murrayhallam]

Since the last upgrade the access to a protected page is not working.
Clients us a Paypal button that has been generated by the S2 system to pay for access to a specific page.
The tiny URL is generated but when clicked on delivers a "access denied" message
I have rebuilt the Paypal button several times but same result. Prior to the last upgrade of S2 Member it has worked flawlessly for months.

Any advices please.

[Cristián Lávaque]

Are previously sold pages the ones that can't be accessed, or those sold after the upgrade? What version did you upgrade to? Could you post the shortcode for the PayPal button? Thanks.

[murrayhallam]

Hi, Here is the short code
[s2Member-PayPal-Button sp="1" ids="1369" exp="720" desc="On-Line viewing AME dvd 9.96" ps="paypal" lc="" cc="AUD" dg="0" ns="1" custom="aquaponics.net.au" ra="9.96" image="default" output="button" /]

Version 110815 + s2Member Pro v110815

The downloadable product has been sold successfully for some months prior to the latest upgrade.
I re did the page and generated a new short code etc, but still does not work.

Thanks for your help.

[Cristián Lávaque]

Thank you, Murray. So previously sold ones work, just the ones after the upgrade present the problem?

If you generate a link for that page, does it work? WP Admin -> s2Member -> PayPal Buttons -> Specific Post/Page Access Links

By the way, I liked your website very much, nice work.

[murrayhallam]

Hi Cristian,
Here is the link
http://tinyurl.com/3jz5hlg#aquaponics.net.au
and it does not work.

Thanks for your comments re my site.
Returning the complement re S2 Membership.
Been so thrilled with it . Just wonderful.

[Cristián Lávaque]

Thanks for the kudos.

And I like the subject you're teaching, I think it's wonderful that there are people like you teaching others how to grow their food.

About your link, I see. I'll email Jason asking him about this, I'm not so familiar with this particular problem.

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for the heads up on this thread.

The error returned by this URL ( http://tinyurl.com/3jz5hlg#aquaponics.net.au ), results in a server error, at the Apache level. I suspect this is caused by one of two things:

1. You have made changes to the .htaccess file on your server and the current configuration of your .htaccess file is somehow coming in conflict with the URL attempting to be accessed?

2. Your Permalink structure for WordPress has been changed, or a conflict has been introduced by another plugin that's been installed. For instance, this is the URL that ultimately needs to be loaded by WordPress. Is this still valid?

Code: Select all

http://aquaponics.net.au/blog/learn-about-aquaponics/on-line-viewing-aquaponics-made-easy-dvd?s2member_sp_access=fnIyOjRQT2wzVzFadXBwa3dwS3o5YVlrbVVwMGVtSk5RVFZifHlTWTM0lHFsqeayqgrRW45RhZCpB0LOWHYwzB8g95DwmuLqro0IG4ECdZ_cAEVJacu7UIjDvF8M1Jtu6glAsQg~#aquaponics.net.au

I suspect the URL is valid, but it's the query string on the end that is triggering a conflict inside your .htaccess file. It has to be something like that. This error you see is NOT generated by s2Member, it's generated by the Apache web server:

Code: Select all

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /blog/learn-about-aquaponics/on-line-viewing-aquaponics-made-easy-dvd on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Apache mod_fcgid/2.3.6 mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 Server at aquaponics.net.au Port 80

[Cristián Lávaque]

Jason, here's another user that found the ~ at the end of the URL to cause him 403's because of a server configuration, could that be a reason for the 404 here too? viewtopic.php?f=4&t=14666#p32908

[murrayhallam]

Thanks for your reply, but it leaves me nowhere.
I am not a programmer so I have no hope of fixing the server if that is what it is.
It is all rather strange that it has happened since the last upgrade of S2 Member, before that it was working flawlessly.
What you are suggesting is that by a strange turn of fate the hosting provider has changed something on the server at the same time I upgraded the S@ Member files ????

I know only enough about programming to understand that faults like this can be difficult to identify, but I feel for the sake of your otherwise great product there needs to be a better answer / solution.

This leaves me with a membership level system but no ability to sell stand alone download files/access on my Blog.

[Cristián Lávaque]

Murray, I don't know if he's suggesting the host changed something coincidentally with the update of s2Member.

What could have happened, though, is that the latest s2Member added a change that conflicts with something in the server configuration, which until now was not the case. s2Member is coded to be compatible with as many server configurations as possible, but every server will have differences and one such difference may be what's causing this problem for you.

I'm sure Jason will help you sort this out soon.

To save time, in case he requires it to find what the problem is, could you send your WP Admin and FTP login info to him using this private contact form? http://s2member.com/contact

[Jason Caldwell]

Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

Jason, here's another user that found the ~ at the end of the URL to cause him 403's because of a server configuration, could that be a reason for the 404 here too? viewtopic.php?f=4&t=14666#p32908

Yes, that may very well be the case. I would highly recommend that you check with your hosting company about this. @murray: Are you hosted with HostGator as well?

Please contact your hosting company and send them the link you posted here. There is something at the server level preventing the file from loading. And yes, it is VERY possible that your hosting company updated something around the same time as you updated s2Member. Hosting companies make subtle changes and tweaks to their configuration on a daily basis. All it takes is one extra line in a mod_security configuration at the Apache level, and this type of thing can result. Of course, it depends on how you're hosted, and with whom your hosted, but what I'm saying is that it's definitely a common occurrence. The error that you're running into is NOT a PHP script error, it's an Apache error, so the issue has something to do with server configuration and/or incompatibility.