No more e-mails

[Guest saturnnights]

I've been with the same web host for all of my websites for many years. Recently, my CubeCart installation stopped sending me e-mails. I wrote my host and they told me to change the SMTP to "localhost" and suddenly, e-mails started moving again. A few months later, e-mail stopped again...

I don't know whether or not they're messing with their servers' relay abilities, but I'm thinking that maybe it's time I just moved. When I wrote them again, they said that they don't support CubeCart. Fair enough, they're just my host and CubeCart is a Fantastico product they offer for free. I've paid for my CubeCart license last year, but my support with the company seems to have expired (got an e-mail saying so).

Anyway, I'm considering moving to a new host if I can figure out if it's them or my installation. I am on 3.010 right now (yeah, I know I need to upgrade). I did set up another test store with the latest version (3.0.15) and the e-mail function still doesn't work. It displays this:

Warning: fsockopen() [function.fsockopen]: unable to connect to localhost:25 in /home/menorth/public_html/store/classes/smtp.php on line 87

Can anybody tell me if this indicates that my host is being a pain in the neck or is there another problem? I really want a webhost that provides functional Fantastico support to keep CubeCart running as doing the updates (I've done several) manually is a killer for me.

If moving to another host will fix this, I'll do so ASAP. I just want to know what that error means and whether moving is worth the effort?

Thanks!

Mark

[vokf]

They may have tighened up on the SMTP security - have you tried using your account username and password in the CC Admin for SMTP?

If you're not having any problems (other than cc emails), its probably worth staying with your host, providing you can get it working.

I don't think you'll find a host that is willing to upgrade CC as part of their hosting package. A blind upgrade will usually break any mods/skins, and so its either a case of re-installing CC, then re-applying any mods/skins, or checking file changes between the new CC and your current store.

Your best bet is to DIY or pay a developer on cc.org to upgrade for you. If you keep a record of any mods, it shouldn't take long to re-install, then re-apply any mods.

Jason

[Guest]

Warning: fsockopen() [function.fsockopen]: unable to connect to localhost:25 in /home/menorth/public_html/store/classes/smtp.php on line 87

Can anybody tell me if this indicates that my host is being a pain in the neck or is there another problem? I really want a webhost that provides functional Fantastico support to keep CubeCart running as doing the updates (I've done several) manually is a killer for me.

You need to know more than just the error message, as this type of problem depends on the hosting environment. Any number of things could cause this kind of error from a change in the PHP version or configuration on the host, to a DNS issue, although 'localhost' should always work if it's any kind of *nix (Unix, Linux, Solaris, etc.)

I doubt you would get the hosting company to "commit" to supporting CubeCart, even if it is one of the shopping cart systems installed by the Fantastico portion of their control panel. They usually make it available on an as-is basis and you would contract for support from either Fantastico or Cube Cart (Devellion).

If you can tell us what the hosting environment is, maybe we can tell you what else to check. If this used to work, without any changes on your part, you need to know what the hosting company has changed since it stopped working. And, even though the hosting company doesn't support "Cube Cart" they should have a tech-support person that should be able to help you determine why you can no longer make a socket connection to port 25 on localhost.

Things to ask, other than "What has changed since ...{when it last worked}"?

Have there been any system OS, PHP, or other library upgrades recently?

Have they moved your hosting to another processor (CPU) or server?

Have they made any "security" changes on available outgoing internet ports, such as 25 for SMTP?

Have they changed the default configuration for PHP on your server?

Do they have any other clients running CubeCart on your server, and are they having problems as well?

What kind of access do you have on the hosting server? (Control Panel, cPanel X, DirectAdmin, etc., FTP, Unix Shell)

If you have shell access, try typing "host localhost", or "telnet localhost 25" or "telnet localhost smtp" and see what results you get.

Locking down port 25 access is very often one "security" or "anti-spam" mechanism, but you should be able to connect to port 25 on your own server.

Try changing it back to whatever you had before, that is, before you changed the host name to localhost and see if that works. Check to see if you have your own /etc/hosts file, and whether the name localhost appears in it.

On my hosting service, I believe I had to change the Mail Sending Method from SMTP to mail(). You might also try making the hostname blank (i.e. empty) and let it default to 'localhost' itself. And lastly, you might need to set authentication. On mine, I have it set to the default.

I some or all of this helps.

I would try to resolve this with your hosting company or hosting reseller if you do not deal directly with the hosting company, before looking to move to another hosting company. All too often, they change something and some of the older clients get missed in the shuffle. On one hosting server I've been on for years, something usually breaks when they move things around every so often.

-Carl