Captcha using TTF & GD

[a_berezin]

Woody!
I think that it's a non-PHP problem.
Check your hosting, your .htaccess.

[rhutchison]

Hey Woody and Andrew,

I'm having the same problem with the Captcha image not displaying. I'm on GoDaddy shared hosting with PHP 4.3.11. When I run captcha_img.php on the browser I get:

The image “http://www.patiotoys.com/captcha_img.php” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

When I run captcha_test the image is also not displaying.

I don't know if there's a solution yet, but I wanted to be in on any solutions that do come up. Let me know if there are any settings I can try massaging.

-Roger

[Woodymon]

Hey Woody and Andrew,

I'm having the same problem with the Captcha image not displaying. I'm on GoDaddy shared hosting with PHP 4.3.11. When I run captcha_img.php on the browser I get:

When I run captcha_test the image is also not displaying.

I don't know if there's a solution yet, but I wanted to be in on any solutions that do come up. Let me know if there are any settings I can try massaging.

Hi Roger,

Thank you for your report. I was going wacko thinking I was the only one with this issue.

My webhost is quickly tiring of my communications on this issue. They keep saying it is a problem with the script or an "authoring" issue. I say NOT! I'm convinced it is a server configuration issue. But if I am wrong I will eat crow (but I prefer turkey).

Several months ago my hosting company messed up (we are apparently a live guinea pig) and added mod_security rules which prevented the serving of my production shop's product images. Took the webhost two days to find problem and repair (apparently they did not document their changes and they could not remember what they changed... go figure).

A similar rule might be causing the captcha_image to not get served (get filtered). But webhost consistently responds no rules are in place which would filter the image. I suspect otherwise but don't know how to prove as I have no access to server wide rules or server wise error logs (I can access my own error log but that is all clear). Such is life in a shared host environment.

They are aware of this thread and I'm amazed they have not responded or posted here. I would think they would want to learn? I know I do!

Does your host employ mod_security? Any special server wide/global rules applied?

Have you tried testing by quickly and temporarily disabling your .htaccess files? (remove the period in front of htaccess. Be sure to change back quickly after testing). I just tested doing that myself and did not help.

I will PM you latest debug script Andrew sent me. If you learn anything please do post. And I'll do the same.

And an EXTRA BIG thanks to Andrew with helping troubleshoot this issue!

Woody

[KTNaturals]

...I'm on GoDaddy shared hosting...

I switched from GoDaddy about a month ago because my shop ran so s l o w... As I put more products into my shopping cart, it got slower, like 5 seconds to load a page with hardly any graphics. They don't know how to configure their servers to run e-commerce apps. I switched to PimaHost (pimahost.com), and I am VERY happy. My shop is FAST!!

Anyway, I still have a few months left on GoDaddy. If I have some time this week, I can try installing the mod on it to see if I have the same issue. In the mean time, don't even try calling them for support - they'll tell you in a roundabout way they're only responsible for server hardware...

[j0ney3]

Andrew (or anyone),

I'm not sure if I'm the only one having this problem but I'm getting that "This page contains both secure and insecure items..." blah blah from IE. I've tried hitting captcha_img.php from the https loca. but it just spits out "The image “https://www.lethalperformance.com/captcha_img.php” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.". If I could get it to work in ssl mode I'm sure I could hack up the code a bit to determine when to enable the ssl link for it.

Thanks for another kick-*** contrib!

[KTNaturals]

...Anyway, I still have a few months left on GoDaddy. If I have some time this week, I can try installing the mod on it to see if I have the same issue...

Oops. I have shared service, so without a domain name or a dedicated IP, I can't connect to my site. Sorry!

[Jeffey]

Excuse my ignorance, read the posts but just want to make sure.

This download replaces (appears that it is suggested that you remove the previous CAPTCHA prior to loading this one) the download section CAPTCHA (which only protects the customer sign up process) and provides protection for both the sign up process AND contact_us submission?

Just looking for confirmation if someone has the time. Hoping it's all true, certainly needed.

[Woodymon]

UPDATE: Webhost just applied identical mod_security rules to both machines. No changes observed. Sigh.

So I stand corrected as I was pointing to a mod_security issue. I now eat crow.

captcha image correctly displays on one server but does not on the other machine. Error in browser is: The image “http://www.domain.com/shop/captcha_img.php” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

Webhost reports the machines are identically configured except PHP4 on one and PHP5 on the other (the latter hosting the account which the captcha image will NOT display).

Any gurus out there with ideas on what might be contributing to the image not displaying (I have confirmed with Andrew's debug script the image is generated).

Something special regards to Apache configuration or MIME types or HTTP headers or...?

Woody

[a_berezin]

Woody!
I install PHP 5.1.6 (Zend: 2.1.0) on my local server an test captcha. All works fine.
Can your host company give me a test account for two days? 1Mb+php5.

[j0ney3]

a_b,

any advice about getting your mod to cooperate w/ ssl? Depending on the user's settings they may just not see the image at all, or at best they'd get a warning about "This page contains both secure and insecure items...". Thanks again.