Help! Download Product Not Working With IE 8?

[imacamper]

Hi,

I set up a PDF file as a downloadable product in my store. You can see that product here:

http://alchemistswarehouse.com/store...d-tricks-vol-1

When I set it up a month ago, I tested with both Opera 10 and Internet Explorer 8 and had no problems. However recently the download has quit working. I don't get any specifc error. Just a blank page and no file. I did notice the download counter decrements each time I attempt to download.

I've checked my error log on my web host and see no errors. I also found this mod:

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=860

and installed it. However something is wrong as no error logs are being generated in ./cache. Yes, I have set permissions on ./cache to 777 just to be sure. Still no logs.

Any ideas on how I might track down this issue?

Thanks,

Drew

P.S. If any kind soul is willing to go through the download process, I promise I will remove your email address upon request and not "spam" you with magic store specials. ;)

[stevesh]

I got a 404 page when I tried to download the file from the checkout success page in IE8. Then I opened Firefox, logged in, went to My Account and tried to download it from there, but got an 'unknown error' message. A permissions thing, maybe?

[imacamper]

Thanks for checking. Perms on download file are 644 so should not be a problem. I'm stumped! Any other ideas? I'd sure like to see some logs...

Thanks,

Drew

[floydsch]

Drew,
Did you receive help with your question about getting the download to work? I'm new to Zen (started a week ago), and I can't get my digital products to download, plus I keep getting the message, 'Sorry, we're not shipping that right now.'

Floyd

[eentje]

If you get a shipping message then you probably have set up the download article wrong.

In my first try i had this wrong:

Downloads know there are no shipping costs automatically due to the fact that you added a Download filename to the Attribute.
Thus, Downloads should NOT be marked as Always Free Shipping, and should NOT be marked as Virtual Products.

Mandatory reading:
https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=71

[imacamper]

Floyd,

I'm still having this particular issue. However I do know that downloads work as my product worked fine up until a few days ago. I don't know what changed to cause the current problem. My next step is to just remove the product from the catalog and then try setting up again.

Cheers,

Drew

[imacamper]

It seems that Opera 10 downloads OK. However Both IE 8 and Firefox 3.x do not. I ran a packet trace after clicking the download link. With IE and Firefox, the download starts and then after about 30 packets, the web server sends a "TCP Window Full" and the browser send "TCP ZeroWindow". This is followed by a keep alive from the web server and another ZeroWindow from the browser. The session ends with a RST/ACK from the browser.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Drew

[kobra]

How do you have this setup and what type of server are you on and details?
https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/i...hp?article=292

[DrByte]

However I do know that downloads work as my product worked fine up until a few days ago. I don't know what changed to cause the current problem.

Well, it can only be one of two things:
a) you, or someone, changed something in your store settings and/or PHP files
b) your hosting company changed their server configuration.

In the case of (a) I suspect you're going to say "you" didn't change *anything*. So, let's assume that's correct. What about *anyone* else? Someone else who has access to your site/server? Or your hosting company? Or a hacker? Compare everything on your server against a good known working backup, and resolve any differences you find. Take it a step further and compare your database backup against a fresh copy of your database, looking for any changes to configuration settings, product/attribute details, etc (naturally new customers/orders are to be expected). Prove to yourself that nothing rogue is going on and prove that the claim of "nobody has changed anything" is accurate.

In the case of (b) you'll have to work with your hosting company to sort that out. It's not uncommon for them to deny changes, largely because that's their safest first answer. But it's often also not completely true, as many hosting companies have many employees doing things others don't know about. Report your symptoms including start date and how long things worked fine without problems. Maybe you'll end up talking with someone who will take you seriously and check logs etc for verification.

Download problems can often be attributed to server configuration changes, compression alterations, PHP upgrades, MIME changes, and a host of other issues managed on the server side.

And IE8 is awful on so many fronts that it's very hard to tell whether it's just a browser issue. Granted, you have suggested maybe firefox is doing the same for you.

My next step is to just remove the product from the catalog and then try setting up again.

That's almost certainly not going to make any difference in download performance, and will result in losing your search-engine ranking for that product since it will no longer exist under the same URL as it's been indexed for already. No point removing it unless you're absolutely certain that it's necessary, and I see nothing indicating such need.

[imacamper]

Thank you for your detailed reply.

Well, it can only be one of two things:
a) you, or someone, changed something in your store settings and/or PHP files
b) your hosting company changed their server configuration.

In the case of (a) I suspect you're going to say "you" didn't change *anything*. So, let's assume that's correct. What about *anyone* else? Someone else who has access to your site/server? Or your hosting company? Or a hacker?

It is possible "I" changed something unintentionally. One thing I have done recently is update my product catalog although I've done that several times before without problem. I use Easy Populate to load a CSV file I get from my supplier. It always appears to update existing products and add new ones but I guess there could be more going on behind the scenes.

No one else is supposed to have access to my site. Although it's possible I could be the victim of a hacker, it seems a hacker would not target messing with a download I give away for free. More likely that my hosting company may have changed something.

Compare everything on your server against a good known working backup, and resolve any differences you find. Take it a step further and compare your database backup against a fresh copy of your database, looking for any changes to configuration settings, product/attribute details, etc (naturally new customers/orders are to be expected). Prove to yourself that nothing rogue is going on and prove that the claim of "nobody has changed anything" is accurate.

I did try to install this PHP debug script (http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=860) but never found any output in ./cache as documentation said. I don't know if that's because there are no errors or because I missed some step.

In the case of (b) you'll have to work with your hosting company to sort that out. It's not uncommon for them to deny changes, largely because that's their safest first answer. But it's often also not completely true, as many hosting companies have many employees doing things others don't know about. Report your symptoms including start date and how long things worked fine without problems. Maybe you'll end up talking with someone who will take you seriously and check logs etc for verification.

Download problems can often be attributed to server configuration changes, compression alterations, PHP upgrades, MIME changes, and a host of other issues managed on the server side.

Based upon past experience, it would likely be far easier to change hosting. This is why I've always preferred to run my own server but I don't do enough business to justify the expense of either co-hosting or getting business class bandwidth speeds to my home.

And IE8 is awful on so many fronts that it's very hard to tell whether it's just a browser issue. Granted, you have suggested maybe firefox is doing the same for you.

Yes, but unfortunately it's so popular that having a web site that doesn't work with it is not good for business.

That's almost certainly not going to make any difference in download performance, and will result in losing your search-engine ranking for that product since it will no longer exist under the same URL as it's been indexed for already. No point removing it unless you're absolutely certain that it's necessary, and I see nothing indicating such need.

Thanks for that advice. Instead of this, I actually created a "new" downloadable product for the same file to test. And like you thought, this did not make any difference.

Thank you for your time. I guess I was just hoping that there might be some easy fix for this symptom. If my download never worked, then I'd suspect my configuration or web host. But since downloads work with some browsers but not others, then I suspect my Zencart config is correct.

Cheers,

Drew