Problem with Paypal connection - Error (28) connect() timed out!

If you don't add ?paypal=1 to the curltester URL, then it won't test PayPal for you.

Use: /extras/curltester.php?paypal=1

Explained here: http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.php?65680-PayPal-Communications-Response-Testing-Tools

A (28) Connect timed out message is ALWAYS a hosting problem, if you've properly got the CURL Proxy disabled. Especially if it "suddenly" breaks. Your hosting company will need to fix it.

I finally ran the proper curltest and this came back:

28 connect() timed out!

Array
(
[url] => "https://api-3t.paypal.com/nvp"
[content_type] =>
[http_code] => 0
[header_size] => 0
[request_size] => 0
[filetime] => -1
[ssl_verify_result] => 0
[redirect_count] => 0
[total_time] => 20.019488
[namelookup_time] => 0.00557
[connect_time] => 0
[pretransfer_time] => 0
[size_upload] => 0
[size_download] => 0
[speed_download] => 0
[speed_upload] => 0
[download_content_length] => -1
[upload_content_length] => -1
[starttransfer_time] => 0
[redirect_time] => 0
)

EOF

I am contacting my HOST immediately to get this resolved.

Thanks DrByte

I have a client with the same timing out errors and getting worse. I called PayPal. They tell me they are aware of ATT blocking some of their traffic. They suggested I email [email protected]. My email bounced back ' The recipient's mailbox is full and can't accept messages now. Please try resending this message later, or contact the recipient directly.'

I did a traceroute to api-3t.paypal.com and did confirm it times out.

Seems to me, and correct me if I'm wrong, but this is an ATT/PayPal problem and not anything to do with hosting, settings or configurations that we can control.

And if it is indeed an ATT problem then your hosting company needs to contact ATT, and you need to also report the problem to PayPal so they can also put pressure on ATT to resolve it. That IS something you can do: get the other parties to make the phone calls to fix it.

PayPal was the one who told me about the problem and they say it's been going on since last November. Apparently ATT has fairly recently acknowledged the problem, which is a start, but obviously little progress has been made or promised.

Fair. Still, if nobody keeps reminding them that it's a problem, it won't get solved.

So ... make sure ATT gets pressure from both ends.

Just an FYI, after having multiple installs of Zencart on the same Ipower host, this exact issue has just crept up started this Sunday March 17, 2013

Curltester is showing me:

28 connect() timed out!

Array
(
[url] => "https://api-3t.paypal.com/nvp"
[content_type] =>
[http_code] => 0
[header_size] => 0
[request_size] => 0
[filetime] => -1
[ssl_verify_result] => 0
[redirect_count] => 0
[total_time] => 20.019673
[namelookup_time] => 0.003141
[connect_time] => 0
[pretransfer_time] => 0
[size_upload] => 0
[size_download] => 0
[speed_download] => 0
[speed_upload] => 0
[download_content_length] => -1
[upload_content_length] => -1
[starttransfer_time] => 0
[redirect_time] => 0
)
EOF

Contacted host to see what they changed, has to be them..
PHPINFO() Shows CURL installed, PHP Install looks like it has not changed in 2 years..

Will update when resolved just in case it helps others..

ipower has been reported to have had the same problem numerous times over the last several months.

I'm having the error 28 timeout issue. It started about 48 hours ago and no one can make a payment now. DrByte says it's always a hosting issue, which I agree with, but how do you get them acknowledge that, instead of Register and Paypal pointing at each other?

Use the curltester tool discussed above, and point them to it.

If they won't fix it, talk to the top dog at the hosting company and explain to them how unhappy you are with their service, yadda yadda yadda. If they want to keep your business, they'll do something about it.

DrByte:

Use the curltester tool discussed above, and point them to it.

If they won't fix it, talk to the top dog at the hosting company and explain to them how unhappy you are with their service, yadda yadda yadda. If they want to keep your business, they'll do something about it.

Began experiencing the same issue in the last week/weekend as well. Was able to "successfully" get to the paypal payment area from a local computer instead of from our host. Provided the info to reproduce the problem and to test using curltester.php.

Was considering developing a way to provide an encrypted payment button at the "right" place if the error code of 28 came back. Does anyone know if anyone has done this and posted a fix? The host has been unable to identify a repair time and has also claimed that the problem has only affected some of their customers. We are a non-profit organization and have two large fundraisers coming up and would like to be able to "cleanly" accept payment rather than advising to select mailing a check and advising to go directly to paypal and make a payment that way.

Been looking through the history of posts related to error code 28 and that predominantly it has been a host issue. I was wondering if there was anything else that could be fed to the host to resolve the issue? Ie, is there a "single" setting or group of things that can be offered to them to attempt resolution? If not desired to publicly state, please PM me, I have no idea of the skill level of our host, and ultimately would just like to see the issue corrected. We are not using any of the hosts that have been identified as "typically" problematic in these forums.

Tell them to contact AT&T and get themselves unblocked.

You can:
Contact ATT at [email protected] to resolve this issue
PayPal’s FAQ’s https://ppmts.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/733

ZC v1.51 (a test upgrade site)
and ZCv1.3.9h ( a live site that has been working fine for a long time)
using UPS shipping mod & Paypal Checkout Express.

All of my sites are experiencing similar problems reported here for the past 1.5 weeks. It seems like the whole world is having the same problem all of a sudden.

I have been reading this forum concerning:

An error occurred when we tried to contact the payment processor. Please try again, select an alternate payment method, or contact the store owner for assistance. () - (28) connect() timed out!

ErrorYour available shipping options have changed. Please re-select your desired shipping method.

The above messages were given to me when I tried to check out using Paypal express & UPS shipping mods.

How do I properly perform a curl test and ipncheck test on my sites?

Can someone give me the proper instructions how to do these test and report the problems here for help?

http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.php?65680-PayPal-Communications-Response-Testing-Tools

twi:

How do I properly perform a curl test and ipncheck test on my sites?

Can someone give me the proper instructions how to do these test and report the problems here for help?

So, here is what I have learnt over the last several days. First off AT&T indicates they are not blocking our ip address, but that deeper analysis indicated a problem between them and paypal, the specific organizations (ip addresses) they were not permitted to say but did identify a few AS records from them to PayPal.
So regarding a curltest. I'm not sure if it was just my install, but in the stores folder is a subfolder called extras.

http://storenameandorfolder/extras/curltester.php?paypal=1

This would test the connection to Paypal, if you set it =0 or leave off ?paypal=1 then will see if curl itself works to ZenCart

The ipncheck is via similar method: http://sameasabove/extras/ipncheck.php

I don't recall seeing any switches in that file, but someone will correct me I'm sure.

So, don't want to jinx it, but it looks like our issue got resolved (for the time being). Not sure which of the basic three actions I took resolved it, or if it was the combination of them. But, had notified our host, then after several days, spoke with computer security staff of AT&T who did try to investigate, but would only officially report what they directly controlled, and at the same time submitted a trouble ticket to PayPal identifying total inability to process PayPal payments in PayPal Express (adaptive payments section?). So far none of the three have reported that they were the ones that resolved the issue, but a paypal curltester.php run gave back a 200 code and all types of data.

Btw, I will try to get up here the conversation with AT&T for those that might take interest. Good luck to others with this problem, hope it wasn't just us that got resolved.

mc12345678:

http://storenameandorfolder/extras/curltester.php?paypal=1

This would test the connection to Paypal, if you set it =0 or leave off ?paypal=1 then will see if curl itself works to ZenCart

The ipncheck is via similar method: http://sameasabove/extras/ipncheck.php

I don't recall seeing any switches in that file, but someone will correct me I'm sure.

Thank you for shedding some light into the situation. I have contacted my Host (Netsol) to no avail.
Since you mention about ATT & Paypal. Paypal sent me the following on Monday:

Dear XXXXXX,
UPDATE: A complete upgrade schedule is now available here. Original email included below.

---

In keeping with industry standards set by the Certification Authority/Browser (CA/B) Forum, PayPal will discontinue supporting 1024-bit key length certificates and will migrate to 2048-bit certificates before the end of 2013.
We have completed the installation of 2048-bit certificates for all API endpoints in our PayPal Sandbox and Payflow Pilot environments, and we will be doing the same for our production environments starting on August 6, 2013.
We strongly encourage merchants to thoroughly test any existing integration(s) in the PayPal Sandbox and/or Payflow Pilot environments to ensure this migration will not cause any unforeseen issues.
Please have the team or person responsible for your integration refer to the following:

If you need to import the new PayPal Sandbox and/or Payflow Pilot server certificates to your application or system truststore, you can download production and Sandbox certificates from https://ppmts.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/952.
If you don't typically import the server certificates to your truststore, you can proceed with testing with no other action required.
If you have any questions, please contact PayPal Merchant Technical Services by filing a ticket; refer to PP-LIVE-3503. You may also visit our Live Site Status blog.
Sincerely,
PayPal

Could it be this is the culprit between Paypal and ATT? Which in turn affects our Zencarts using Paypal Express Check Out?

I was all confused and though I did something wrong and caused the error, because I was in the procress of pointing my URLs to my New zc1.5.1 Multisite zencart that was fully tested and functional (using my backup .net urls) even down to order and payment with paypal. After I transferred all my customers and related data, the site is fully functional except payment was not going through. Hence the time out problem.

I immediately switched to Paypal Standard, and it seems to be working intermittently.

Intermittently because somehow United Parcel Service was also intermittently able to display shipping rates. hence my second error message provided in my previous post..

SO do we just sit and wait it out and see what happens or can we do something about this? I know all of us are losing sales because of this.

twi:

Could it be this is the culprit between Paypal and ATT? Which in turn affects our Zencarts using Paypal Express Check Out?
No. The SSL certificate has nothing to do with the symptoms you've described thus far.

Plus, there's nothing in Zen Cart's implementation which requires any importing of new 3rd-party SSL certificates. Now, if your hosting company has outdated certificate stores then that may have cascading effects on other aspects of payment handling and they would need to fix their server SSL stores. But that's not causing a 28-connect-timed-out error. (An SSL issue would trigger a different error number and message).

What's the MTS ticket number you logged with PayPal?