some upgrade questions

Alana:

Are you using a reseller on Godaddy host? I don't think so. They manage a few other sites for their clients. I am working on getting some answers from their manager and info from godaddy and see what I can figure out.

So I'm going to expand on some concerns I see being raised by others..

It makes NO SENSE to pay anyone for THEIR learning curve.. PERIOD.. If your website managers/developers do not know Zen Cart, then you need to GET RID!! You say you do not have time or money to move the site or do this work yourself, yet guys have wasted time and money to pay the clowns you've been working with.

Based on your posts it sounds like they may OWN your site which is well beyond simply "managing" it, and this is NOT GOOD FOR YOU if this is the case..:no:

My advice is to stop throwing away money with these clowns and find more qualified web developers. You don't have to announce your intent to do this either.. Ask them to provide you with a full backup of your site (DB and files). You need to make that happen TODAY. Then (if you don't already have this) you need to gain control of your domain names and finally you need to secure your own hosting space. (if money is tight Bluehost and Gatorhost are acceptable providers)

ctfoffice:

Well, we had a company build the site and "manage" it (not my choice). They don't give me access to the server,** because that would give me access to all of their other sites.** I really wish we had the time and money to move our site to our own.

I will try tomorrow to get in touch with GoDaddy and see what can be done. Thanks!

ctfoffice:

It is complicated. They could manage the site for us, but they charge by the hour and they are not very familiar ZC, so we pay for extra time as they get up to speed. Believe me, I am seriously considering moving our site.

ctfoffice:

I don't think so. They manage a few other sites for their clients. I am working on getting some answers from their manager and info from godaddy and see what I can figure out.

Possibly one way of finding out if you own this site or if someone "they" who manage it owns your site. Go to Godaddy request your cpanel user name and password info. If they do not have that info in your name you probably don't own the site. In other words if Godaddy can't find any account in your name you don't have an account with them. In that case "they" who you say manage your site own the account your site is on.

DivaVocals:

Ask them to provide you with a full backup of your site (DB and files). You need to make that happen TODAY. Then (if you don't already have this) you need to gain control of your domain names and finally you need to secure your own hosting space. (if money is tight Bluehost and Gatorhost are acceptable providers)
I have contacted them and started the ball rolling. I will post the status as soon as I make some headway.

I will be on the road this weekend and first part of next week. Would it be wise to at least get the ZC upgraded successfully on our current site then, when I get back to the office, I can spend a lot more time on the site migration? I am thinking that it will give me practice before moving to a new host and add security for our store.

My opinion??? This will sound harsh (I prefer the term direct/blunt), and if it does, my apologies.. I'm not big on candy coating things... :laugh: I like to cut to the chase..

I think your current site managers/developers sound like parasites, and you need to be out from under them ASAP. Others may have a different opinion, but I say if it is your livelyhood coming out of this website that this should be the TOP priority..

ctfoffice:

I have contacted them and started the ball rolling. I will post the status as soon as I make some headway.

I will be on the road this weekend and first part of next week. Would it be wise to at least get the ZC upgraded successfully on our current site then, when I get back to the office, I can spend a lot more time on the site migration? I am thinking that it will give me practice before moving to a new host and add security for our store.

Check your whois see who owns your domain http://who.godaddy.com/whoischeck.aspx?prog_id=GoDaddy
Your own name should be on this if not you don't own the domain.

The domain is registered to us. We have owned the domain for a long time now. The server where the site is located is owned by the other company. At least for now:smile:

ctfoffice:

The domain is registered to us. We have owned the domain for a long time now. The server where the site is located is owned by the other company. At least for now:smile:That's certainly good to hear.. I have a friend who let his web designer register his domain, and now this parasite won't turn over control of the domain to my friend without expecting some ridiculous fee to "buy back" his domain...

They don't own the server if it's through Go Daddy.. they are controlling your site.. and that's what you need to get control of.. Your site should be hosted on a server you own or hosted with a hosting company where YOU are the account owner..

There seems to be a whole lot of fear and loathing being thrown around in this thread by people who don't really know the details or the people involved. To me it just sounds like some ineptitude on the part of the host/managers and probably on the part of the business owner too. Lessons to be learned all around, for sure, but I don't think we need a lynch mob just yet.

Rob

rstevenson:

There seems to be a whole lot of fear and loathing being thrown around in this thread by people who don't really know the details or the people involved. To me it just sounds like some ineptitude on the part of the host/managers and probably on the part of the business owner too. Lessons to be learned all around, for sure, but I don't think we need a lynch mob just yet.

RobSpeaking for my own posts, there's no fear and loathing at all in anything I've posted.. Nor was I lobbying for a lynch mob. I merely expressed an opinion based on the information provided by the OP. (perhaps using stronger language than others who've posted -- but that's in no way meant to be interpreted as lynch mob speak) Now granted NO ONE who has responded in this thread knows all the details, yet we all offered up opinions based on what information has been provided by the OP.. I would hope that the OP would take what is applicable and useful and act on it and discard anything which is not.

In the end my opinion is that a site owner should own their hosting and domain so that they are not in a potential position of NOT having full control over their site. (which sounds like this indeed is the case with the OP -- again based on the information that has been posted here)

I just want everyone to know that I was able to get an "All Access Pass" to the godaddy cpanel! The host company was very gracious to me and allowed me to work on the database backup myself (let's hope I don't break something in there).

Thank you all for your comments and concerns. I agree that we need to change the situation that we are in and our security needs to be ratcheted up several notches. This is exactly why I posted on this forum. Somebody needs to look after numbskulls like me:D

I am now going back over the tutorials and instructions to continue my quest to upgrade the store.

ctfoffice:

I just want everyone to know that I was able to get an "All Access Pass" to the godaddy cpanel! The host company was very gracious to me and allowed me to work on the database backup myself (let's hope I don't break something in there).

Thank you all for your comments and concerns. I agree that we need to change the situation that we are in and our security needs to be ratcheted up several notches. This is exactly why I posted on this forum. Somebody needs to look after numbskulls like me:D

I am now going back over the tutorials and instructions to continue my quest to upgrade the store.That's certainly good news indeed, and it sounds like you are on the right path.:smile:

OK, I've made a lot of progress and kinda enjoyed learning the process. I got the test site up and running yesterday afternoon with my mods and db working correctly. All of the products and their descriptions showed up correctly and looked like all I had to do is tweak it a little to get it perfect. However, when I checked on it when arriving at home, it gave me a Down for Maintenance page and I can't get into the admin page at all.:(

I checked out he faq pages that lead me through the steps (clearing browser cache, etc; checking the configure.php files for correct db location, username, etc; and even changed ssl to false). What am I missing? I am sure that it is something simple that I am overlooking.

Here is the latest: My store does now open and looks mostly OK, but I can't get into the admin pages. I get an HTTP Error 500 when I go to login. Then I checked my error log file and out that this keeps coming up:

[29-May-2012 15:31:17] PHP Warning: require(DIR_FS_CATALOG_LANGUAGESenglish/meta_tags.php) [<a href='function.require'>function.require</a>]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/content/MyPrivateSite/includes/languages/english.php on line 51
[29-May-2012 15:31:17] PHP Fatal error: require() [<a href='function.require'>function.require</a>]: Failed opening required 'DIR_FS_CATALOG_LANGUAGESenglish/meta_tags.php' (include_path='.:/usr/local/php5/lib/php') in /home/content/MyPrivateSite/includes/languages/english.php on line 51

I can't find an answer on how to correct that. Please let me know what's next for me.

Also, should I start a new thread, since I have moved on from my original question? Thanks!

Your /renamed-admin/includes/configure.php file is damaged, since it is missing the define() statement for DIR_FS_CATALOG_LANGUAGES

Does that mean I should start over with the upgrade or is it a simple repair? Thanks!

Wait, I think that I figured it out. I edited a backed up copy of the configure.php that worked earlier and uploaded it to the test store and now I can get into the admin section! :cool: Now I can move on to the rest of the upgrade.