Web site not working

[Guest]

Hi Guys,

 

I have a web site that has been operating successfully for about years now - it was designed for me by a local company using the oscommerce software V2.2 or 2.3 (can't remember of the top of my head sorry) and it's worked pretty well for me www.domestic-filters.co.uk. I have a suspicion that they are now trying to unfairly squeeze a little more of my hard earned money out of me for their own benefit but need some advise to confirm or disprove this. I'll try to explain;

 

Going back in March of this year, we had a message from the site designers saying their hosting company were upgrading their servers from PHP5.2 to 5.3 and that this would affect our site as it is written in 5.2. As a result I posted on here and the general feeling I got from the advice was that changes needed to be made but nothing too extensive. If you can access my previous posts you should be find it there. The servers were updated and I was told by the designers that a "tempoary fix" had been put in place that would buy us some time.

 

The site has worked since with no changes being made so far with one exception - the email is accessed via a webmail page. From time to time since March we've been getting an error message when trying to log on to the web mail - the message said something like Internal Server Error - user Domestic is over quota. On each occasion this has happened ( about 4 now I think) the site designers said this was due to the upgradng of the servers and because of that the size of the site was getting unwieldy but that they would increase the size of the site to accomodate this temporarilly, whilst reminding me there was still work to be done.

 

I've tried to log into my admin area today and get the message FATAL ERROR: register_globals is disabled in php.ini, please enable it!

 

The webmail is all still working fine - I can send mail into it and out from it but the main site and my admin area are unnaccessible. I've contacted the designers today and they are now saying the tempory fix has come to an end and the site needs completely rebuilding - effectively start again from scratch and their fee to do this is, well, pretty damn expensive - much more than I paid to have it built in the first place - albeit this was 8 years ago.

 

I'm learning about how the oscommerce software works as I'm building a "test" site with the help of a book and these forums but I'm afraid I'm not yet in a position to lock horns with these guys on a technical level so I need some help if anyone has the time please.

 

I feel that a total rebuild is over the top in light of the advice I was given on here previously, also I'm sceptical that the designers have previously said that the site is getting larger and this was causing the webmail to fail whilst the site continued to work, but now its the site thats failed whilst the webmail works fine.

 

Based on the above does anyone else think the designers are looking for an excuse to charge me lots of money or does the situation really warrant a complete rebuild?

 

Also, as the site isn't working yet, if I could find a host who's servers still supported PHP5.2, would a solution be to upload the site onto that in order to get it working again - or is it not that simple?

 

Please let me know if you need any more information.

[Guest]

@@DaiLemma

 

If your site is requesting registered globals on, then it is most likely a MS or early RC version and should be replaced as your developer suggested. The idea of your site becoming too large for their servers where they had to increase your quota tells me, you need to change hosting accounts as there are many available without quota's at very reasonable prices.

 

The cost of a new website, although cost really can't be discussed here is greatly determined by what functionality has been incorporated and if you have a unique template. Unique websites with added functionality could cost in the $1500 to $4000 range, again this could change substantially depending on your individual needs.

 

If you are looking to save money, you could choose a 'ready made' template or 'pre-configured' cart which you would then just have to install (on a better hosting providers server) and load. That option could cost in the range of $150.00 to $400.00 depending on your needs.

 

In my opinion, your developer has offered you sound advice about creating a new site (this is usually required every 5 years or so). You will have to determine whether or not their quote is worth it.

 

 

Chris

[♥14steve14]

I have just tried to look at your site and get the following error message. Looks like you need to do something.

 

FATAL ERROR: register_globals is disabled in php.ini, please enable it!

[Guest]

@@DunWeb

 

You're exactly right - the version of osCommerce is the old 2.2MS, PHP is 5.3.18 so it is a bit long in the tooth now. It looks like the servers are now operating solely on the later PHP version and turning off of the old version triggered the disabling in the registered globals in php.ini. I looked in the archives here (and elsewhere) and found out how to enable it again, my site is now up and running again - checked the functionality and can't find anything that doesn't work or look right so assume I'm OK for the time being but in hindsight, I think your advice is spot on. I've had 8 years of relatively cheap trading from this site and should have realised earlier this year that the time had come to re-invest for the future. Thanks all for the advice, I intend to take a more hands on approach with the redevelopment of the site so who know, it probably won't be too long befor eI'm on here posting the next silly question ;-)

 

Regards

 

Dave