Error 500 on confirm order - also search engine issues

[Black Dougall]

www.elementsofdesign.ca

Sometime between August and now my site developed two problems that may or may not be related.

First thing we noticed is that the site wasn't showing up in web searches though it always had before. Google won't even see the site when I type the full address in a search. Using site:elementsofdesign.ca brings up exactly two links. My host is passing it off as an SEO problem but I've gone through the steps of submitting the site to Google and I've checked a bunch of other search engines. Also as mentioned, we showed up in lots of different searches before.

We noticed this about two weeks ago. Then last week we were informed by a customer that the order system didn't work. In testing we discovered that you can create a new account and order items but at the stage when it says "confirm order", it goes to an 500 Internal Server error. My host says the specific error in the log reads:

Premature end of script headers: ipn_main_handler.php, referer: http://elementsofdesign.ca/index.php...t_confirmation

I tried fooling around with email settings which were set to PHP and had always worked. I set them to SMTP with what I hoped were the right settings but it made no difference.

We haven't made any changes to the site since around May other than adding new product. I'm not particularly knowledgeable with Zen Cart so I was hoping someone might have some ideas :)

Thanks,

Tony

[kobra]

Try installing paypal express instead of standard ipn

[Black Dougall]

I am using Paypal Express. I'm pretty sure the problem occurs before the payment step.

[kobra]

This will have to be corrected with your hosts help

http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?...l-server-error

[Black Dougall]

That was my feeling too but my host didn't seem to think so and I'm not really sharp enough on this stuff to prove it to them.

Does it seem likely that the search engine problem and the Error 500 on Confirm Order are related?

[kobra]

Does it seem likely that the search engine problem and the Error 500 on Confirm Order are related?

What search engine issue?

[Black Dougall]

"First thing we noticed is that the site wasn't showing up in web searches though it always had before. Google won't even see the site when I type the full address in a search. Using site:elementsofdesign.ca brings up exactly two links. My host is passing it off as an SEO problem but I've gone through the steps of submitting the site to Google and I've checked a bunch of other search engines. Also as mentioned, we showed up in lots of different searches before."

In first post :)

[Design75]

It looks like you have bigger problems, because when I visit your site I, it only loads the first part. looking at the source code a lot of html is missing.
Look in your cache/log folders for any debug files, and tell us what is in it.

[Black Dougall]

That's very odd then because the site loads fine for me. I have tried it from a number of locations and they've all been fine.

[Black Dougall]

OK, when I stick my url in at this website it reports the status as 500 Internal Server Error.

http://www.websitepulse.com/help/tools.php

Would this be good proof that my host is at fault or could it be a coding error?