Can't log in to admin

[HeleneWallis]

I've been using the site all weekend to track orders, with no issues. Nothing has changed about the software since I looked at the site last night, and no one here knows how to change anything besides myself anyway, or even knows how to use ftp to get at the site. This morning I can't log in. I don't get an error message such as incorrect user name or password. It just goes right back to the blank login screen. I've tried from all the computers and from my phone, just to make sure it wasn't related somehow to a particular device. The only anomaly is that last night I tried multiple times to log in from my phone and somehow entered the password incorrectly five or six times. But I was finally able to log in and everything appeared to be normal.

No error is being generated--I looked at the logs. I've requested a password reset, but haven't received an email, so apparently that isn't working either. We have the Master Password plugin installed but it isn't allowing access either.

This is pretty much a disaster for a Monday morning. We're printing out the email notifications to use as packing slips--otherwise we'd be dead in the water. Does anyone have any ideas at all?

The site is http://www.newnaturalsonline.com

[DrByte]

I suspect something's gone amuck with your server's session handling.

Even add-to-cart seems to be triggering a problem (or, maybe you've forced your site to require being logged in before allowing add-to-cart).

[HeleneWallis]

The problem does indeed appear to be at the server end. I've called support and got a total runaround. They're running a malware detection process now, but I may not know anything for a couple of hours.

The server error log is showing "client denied by server configuration..."

The site does not require logging in to add products to the cart, only to check out. I'll update when I know more.

[DrByte]

When login problems like that occur I usually start testing by simply trying to add something to the cart. That's the simplest test to determine whether there's a relatively universal problem.

You could try doing a database-repair on your tables, particularly the "sessions" table. If that doesn't help, you could "truncate" the sessions table (click "Empty" in phpMyAdmin).

[HeleneWallis]

Thanks, I'm going to wait for now to hear back from the site host.

[HeleneWallis]

The site technician disabled Varnish. I've had a look at that and understand that it's for caching, though I'm not certain exactly what it is caching. I can now log in to the admin side. Can you tell me whether zencart is dependent in any way on Varnish, or is that strictly a server application?

[DrByte]

Varnish is a glorified proxy server, which sits between your real server and your customers, providing a fast-lookup cache layer to avoid hitting your real server on pages that haven't changed. Its purpose is to theoretically improve response time.

Of course, if not properly configured, it will completely break essential features such as session handling, which provides all your login and commerce functionality.

If they want to insert Varnish into the equation, make sure they've figured out all the technical issues first. Zen Cart's session implementation is just straightforward PHP session handling with a session name of zenid, handled by session cookies. All very simple very common.

[HeleneWallis]

Thanks, I hadn't seen it mentioned here before, so I assumed it was something the hosting site was using, not part of Zencart. But I wanted to ask to be certain. It apparently did break some essential features, lol. I can't tell any difference in speed right now, so I'll leave things as they are for the moment.