aol browser cannot access store

[Guest]

Hi,

 

Does anyone know why people on aol cannot access a store.

 

Getting many complaints from people that use aol.

 

Thanks!

[Daemonj]

What kind of message do they get (File not found, Site restricted, etc.)?

[Guest]

All they are telling me is this:

 

There are no errors.

 

Each time a new customer tries to register they are redirected back to the login page.

 

Each time an old customer logs in and tries to buy something by clicking on a product they are redirected back to the login page.

 

I'm stumped!

[Daemonj]

Is your site setup to use cookies?

 

(your not a p0rn site are you)? LOL :P

[Guest]

Band To Bow?

 

Don't think so...lol

 

bandtobow.com/catalog/

 

It has the sessions enabled if that's what you mean.

[Daemonj]

ROFL I guess you are safe then! :D

 

No, I meant in admin ~ configuration ~ sessions, do you have Force Cookie Use to true? Some of the other options there might be causing a problem as well.

 

Other than that, my only suggestion would be to send AOL support an eMail describing the problem in detail and asking their advice. In my experience, they are slow to respond so the more information that you can provide really helps.

 

Good luck and please report back the resolution to the problem. :)

[Guest]

The AOL browser is based on defunct versions of either IE or Netscape (depending on AOL version).... so basically, AOL sux

[Guest]

Well we all know aol is not a good browser but people who use aol cannot shop at this site and this is a problem.

[Guest]

I'll test your site. I am installing AOL now.

[Guest]

We have being doing some checking and these are the settings for sessions that people on aol have to use to register and shop at osc stores.

 

Session Directory /tmp

Force Cookie Use True

Check SSL Session ID False

Check User Agent False

Check IP Address False

Prevent Spider Sessions True

Recreate Session False

 

Sessions are being stored in mysql.

 

Hope this helps someone.

[Guest]

Wayne,

 

I have my test site setup with the sessions directory set all to true and storing sessions in mysql if you want to test it.

 

www.mdesigns.biz/catalog/

[Guest]

Basically, I know what the problem is and it is most likely related to OSCommerce's session handling problems. We had similar problems with vBulletin based sites in the past.

 

AOL uses a round robin proxy system for dial-up users, broadband users won't be affected. What this does is assign a new IP to the user on almost every page load. Since most session mechanism's use the IP address as a qualifier and for verification, this breaks the system the user is trying to access. Since round-robin proxies are being used more and more, this will continue to be a problem not only with AOL but with many ISP systems. These problems will contually get worse if the people programming software rely on IP addresses being unique. They are no longer unique because we are running out of them. Only will the IPv6 system allow us to eliminate this problem, however its worldwide implementation is still years away.

[Guest]

Thanks. I looked up IPv6 and ran some tests on my server and it looks like several are configured for IPv6.

[sokkerbob]

I thought I would put my two cents in. When the force cookie usage feature was first implemented in the CVS, I noticed that it did not work on Netscape 6.1.

 

I am not an expert, but I played around with the code in catalog/includes/application_top.php a bit and got it to work. I submitted a bug report and figured the issue would be addressed by someone who knows all the ins and outs of php.

 

Since then there have a couple of revisions to the application_top.php file and I have not implemented them as of this date. However, I do not think they has addressed the issue because the bug report is still open.

 

My guess is you are having same issues with the AOL browser

[grantjm]

Well, maybe this is an interesting question.

 

Approximately what percentage of persons visiting our stores will be affected.

 

My guess is that if a significant amount will be affected and they choose to go elsewhere to shop or do business, they cannot access our store. We need to act quickly.

[Guest]

I put in a very detailed bug report so hope they figure something out.

[sokkerbob]

Ok, I did a little digging of changes that made it work for Netscape 6.1 At the time, I had my reasons, but I don't quite remember what they were.

 

So the original code in application top was as follows:

// start the session

 $session_started = false;

 if (SESSION_FORCE_COOKIE_USE == 'True') {

   tep_setcookie('cookie_test', 'please_accept_for_session', time()+60*60*24*30, '/', $current_domain);



   if (isset($HTTP_COOKIE_VARS['cookie_test'])) {

     tep_session_start();

     $session_started = true;

   }

 } elseif (SESSION_BLOCK_SPIDERS == 'True') {

   $user_agent = strtolower(getenv('HTTP_USER_AGENT'));

   $spider_flag = false;



   if (tep_not_null($user_agent)) {

     $spiders = file(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'spiders.txt');



     for ($i=0, $n=sizeof($spiders); $i<$n; $i++) {

       if (tep_not_null($spiders[$i])) {

         if (is_integer(strpos($user_agent, trim($spiders[$i])))) {

           $spider_flag = true;

           break;

         }

       }

     }

   }



   if ($spider_flag == false) {

     tep_session_start();

     $session_started = true;

   }

 } else {

   tep_session_start();

   $session_started = true;

 }



// verify the ssl_session_id if the feature is enabled

 

But I changed to

// start the session

 $session_started = false;

 if (SESSION_FORCE_COOKIE_USE == 'True') {

   

   if (isset($HTTP_COOKIE_VARS['cookie_test'])) {

     tep_session_start();

     $session_started = true;

  

     } else {

     setcookie('cookie_test', 'please_accept_for_session',time()+60*60, '/', $current_domain);



     if (isset($HTTP_COOKIE_VARS['cookie_test'])) {

     tep_session_start();

     $session_started = true;

}

}

}elseif (SESSION_BLOCK_SPIDERS == 'True') {

   $user_agent = strtolower(getenv('HTTP_USER_AGENT'));

   $spider_flag = false;



   if (tep_not_null($user_agent)) {

     $spiders = file(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'spiders.txt');



     for ($i=0, $n=sizeof($spiders); $i<$n; $i++) {

       if (tep_not_null($spiders[$i])) {

         if (is_integer(strpos($user_agent, trim($spiders[$i])))) {

           $spider_flag = true;

           break;

         }

       }

     }

   }

  

   if ($spider_flag == false) {

     tep_session_start();

     $session_started = true;

}



 }else {

   tep_session_start();

   $session_started = true;

 }





// verify the ssl_session_id if the feature is enabled

 

As mentioned in previous post, there have been some CVS commits since I did this so it might be a little difference now. Bottom line is it SEEMS to work for both Netscape 6.1 and IE at the moment. Hopefully, someone with a little more knowledge can comment.

[Guest]

Thanks. I looked up IPv6 and ran some tests on my server and it looks like several are configured for IPv6.

 

I am a little delayed in testing. I don't normally use AOL and have forgotten my userid and password. As such, I need to go to my parent's house today to retrieve the userid and reset the password or get access to another one of their 7 screennames if they deleted mine. Once I do that though, I will test things in AOL for people if they contact me.

[Guest]

As mentioned in previous post, there have been some CVS commits since I did this so it might be a little difference now. Bottom line is it SEEMS to work for both Netscape 6.1 and IE at the moment. Hopefully, someone with a little more knowledge can comment.

 

How does your code work on search engine spiders though? They don't use cookies and it looks like your code blocks them from your site completely. This can't be good for the promotion aspects of a store.

 

Do you have records of spiders such as googlebot, alta visita, webcrawler, inktomi and others performing deepcrawls on your site and adding listings to their databases?

[Guest]

Wayne,

 

I have my test site setup with the sessions directory set all to true and storing sessions in mysql if you want to test it.

 

www.mdesigns.biz/catalog/

 

Sorry for the delay. Got tied up with a new server.

 

Anyway, do you have any kind of contributions on that test store that requires a user to login before viewing products?

 

THe problem is that OSCommerce cannot tie a Session to the AOL user it appears. The front page loads fine but anything after that gets you stuck on the login.php page.

[Guest]

I don't have any contributions in this store...It is a test store.

 

You have to log in like usual. When I disabled the sessions then aol can use it. I only have "force cookie use" and the spiders enabled.

[ujilop]

To whom it may concern...

We have been using osC for almost two years now.

At home my ISP is AOL and for a couple of weeks during the months of may and june i could not access our site nor our store.

 

I think AOL had some problems connecting to our server and possably others running similar complicated configurations.

 

Any hoo hope it was on there end.

 

Down with AOL.....

[minglou]

Oh, I didn't realized this problems since i used time warner cable.

 

did anybody test their own store by aol ? was it really a problem for osc store?

 

 

if this is a problem , we have to fix it.

 

anybody knows?

 

sean

[jrwrestling]

Well I think I have another thing that may help point us in the right direction.

 

AOL browsers couldn't use my chat room on a different site. The site would load, however the main window would not ever show text. It wouldn't refresh the information. I am unsure why, but it may be related to this error.