After enabling fastcgi my admin only logs in after 20-50 tries

As the title suggests, I can login to Zencart admin but only after 20-50 retries. It's really ridiculous. It happened after my host reconfigured my VPS account for Fastcgi APC. Because of the amount of traffic I'm getting that's the only configuration supported short of dedicated server as suPhP was encountering issues.

Is there any known issue with Fastcgi APC? Is there a fix for this?

How much traffic do you get?

between 1,600 and 1,800 unique visitors per day.

You might want to change hosts then. I get way more than that and runs fine on shared hosting

Are you running Windows hosting?

I'm on linux and I'm all ears. I went from hostgator VPS to inmotionhosting VPS and i figured it's just a hard upsell to go to dedicated with them. Until I can move is there any fix for the login issue?

Not sure if it makes any difference, but most of the traffic is going to vbulletin forums and not the zencart. They're saying the pull on the server is caused by the forums. However that caused the whole server (of course including zencart) to be reconfigured for Fastcgi APC. The login has been having issues since the changeover.

akyeame:

I'm on linux and I'm all ears. I went from hostgator VPS to inmotionhosting VPS and i figured it's just a hard upsell to go to dedicated with them. Until I can move is there any fix for the login issue?

I don't know of a fix, but the way I look at it if you're having problems trying to log into admin, I would assume customers are also having problems logging into the site. Even if there is a fix, id have lost confidence if its 100% and seeing as you can't sit there all day checking this every 2 mins, Id move the site, or at least move the database.

I assumed the same thing but I'm getting orders coming through with no problem and no issues reported. I can also login to the front end with no issue. This appears to be restricted to the admin section only. I've tried fixes for "can't login to zencart admin" that I've found from google searches but none have helped.

Is there a host you would recommend?

What is the exact error you get or is it a page not found / server 500 page?

there's no error. it just redirects to the admin login with no error. it seems to be a common problem because if you type in "cannot login to zencart admin" there are quite a few people reporting this happens to them. I've tried the .htaccess fix, the configure.php fix changing the SSL settings but I haven't gotten the fixes to work. Like I'm in the admin backend now, but it must've taken a good 15-20 minutes at least. Once I've gotten in, I've changed the session length so I don't have to worry about timeouts for 8 hours (private computer). Any assistance on this would be appreciated as dedicated would be more expensive than I'm willing to pay now and moving would be a hassle especially after moving 30 accounts on the VPS from HG to IMH although I'm sure I'll move eventually if I can get a tip on a better host. If I can just get past this login issue, I'm fine and I can save myself time and money.

akyeame:

It happened after my host reconfigured my VPS account for Fastcgi APC.
...
Is there any known issue with Fastcgi APC? Is there a fix for this?
I've heard of others having problems with that FastCGI/APC. Yet at the same time many have also reported it working fine for them.

But I would think that's where you will want to focus your troubleshooting efforts.

What version of Zen Cart?
What addons do you have installed?

DrByte:

I've heard of others having problems with that FastCGI/APC. Yet at the same time many have also reported it working fine for them.

But I would think that's where you will want to focus your troubleshooting efforts.

What version of Zen Cart?
What addons do you have installed?

Hello,

Yes, I never had any issue on Zencart before the FastCGI/APC but it does seem to be speeding up my forums.

I agree @ focusing my troubleshooting efforts there. I'm running Zen Cart v1.3.8a/v1.3.8
I just have a custom template that I purchased at template monster. I'm using SSL from PositiveSSL/Comodo. I have a chatbar integrated on the front end, but that wouldn't affect the admin login page, I wouldn't think. I can provide any other information necessary.

While it may not be related to your present "problem", I STRONGLY recommend upgrading to a more secure version of Zen Cart. Yours contains serious security vulnerabilities that are only patched by upgrading. That should be an urgent priority.

Hello DrByte,

I've downloaded 1.5. I considered upgrading to see if that got rid of the error, but I was concerned about losing my custom template and the time it would take. Looks like I'll have to go ahead and bite the bullet, no pun intended. I'll let you know via this thread if the upgrade resolves the issue or not.

You could try installing 1.5.0 in another folder+database for testing. That's part of a safer upgrade process too, and also minimizes storefront downtime.
https://www.zen-cart.com/upgrade

Hello DrByte,

Yes, I just read the upgrade instruction in the docs folder of the current distribution to see what I was in for. I'll definitely go with another folder/db to start with. I've also bookmarked the link you provided. I'll try to start the process as soon as possible since this 1.3.8 login issue is bad for business to say the least. I appreciate the support and quick responses!

I should clarify an earlier statement I made. I've seen several hosts successfully using FastCGI. But it's the APC piece that I remember having some problems. Some further research suggests maybe that could be the issue you're facing.

Can you ask your host to disable APC, but leave fastcgi?
Or disable APC just inside your Zen Cart area?

DrByte:

I should clarify an earlier statement I made. I've seen several hosts successfully using FastCGI. But it's the APC piece that I remember having some problems. Some further research suggests maybe that could be the issue you're facing.

Can you ask your host to disable APC, but leave fastcgi?
Or disable APC just inside your Zen Cart area?

Hello,

That resolved the issue. I'm able to login on the first try (actually the second try but I think that was a cached page issue or something). Is the APC an issue on 1.5.0 as well or only for my antique version?