PayPal Express Checkout getting (28) connect() timed out!

My site was working up until the last order at 11:09 am (MST) yesterday. Nothing has changed on my site. Now any customer who tries to check out gets the error message: (28) connect() timed out! I've tried it a couple of times myself and get the same error. I'm losing customers due to this error. Do I need to call PayPal?

What happens if you run the curltester.php
/extras/curltester.php

on your site? Any errors?

Here's the results from curltester.php

Testing communications to various destinations. This is a simple diagnostic to determine whether your server can connect to common destinations.
For advanced "details" mode, add ?details=on to the URL.

Connecting to Zen Cart Support Server (http) ...
GOOD: CURL Connection successful.

Connecting to Zen Cart Support Server (https) ...
GOOD: CURL Connection successful.

Connecting to USPS (port 80)...
GOOD: CURL Connection successful.

Connecting to USPS Test/Staging/Sandbox Server (port 80)...
GOOD: CURL Connection successful.

Connecting to UPS (port 80)...
GOOD: Socket established

Connecting to UPSXML (SSL) (wwwcie.ups.com) ...
GOOD: CURL Connection successful.

Connecting to UPSXML (SSL) (www.ups.com) ...
GOOD: CURL Connection successful.

Connecting to UPSXML (SSL) (onlinetools.ups.com) ...
GOOD: CURL Connection successful.

Connecting to FedEx (port 80)...
GOOD: Socket established

Connecting to PayPal IPN (port 443)...
GOOD: Socket established

GOOD: CURL Connection successful.

Connecting to PayPal IPN (port 443) Sandbox ...

Warning: fsockopen(): unable to connect to www.sandbox.paypal.com:443 (Connection timed out) in /home1/bestitc2/public_html/extras/curltester.php on line 179

Error Num: 110, Message: Connection timed out

Error 28: connect() timed out!

Connecting to PayPal Express/Pro Server ...
Error 28: connect() timed out!

Connecting to PayPal Express/Pro Sandbox ...
Error 28: connect() timed out!

Connecting to PayPal Payflowpro Server ...
Error 28: connect() timed out!

Connecting to AuthorizeNet Production Server ...
GOOD: CURL Connection successful.

Connecting to AuthorizeNet Developer/Sandbox Server ...
GOOD: CURL Connection successful.

Connecting to First Data GGe4 server (SSL)...
GOOD: CURL Connection successful.

Connecting to LinkPointAPI server (port 1129)...
Error 28: connect() timed out!

Testing completed. See results above.

Talk to your hosting provider and show them that link to the curl tester and see if they can see why you are having communication issues with PayPal ...

Already talked to hosting company, and they verified there was nothing on their end and suggested I call PayPal. I'm currently on the phone with PayPal and they have confirmed there are some problems. They thought they had it fixed, so now they are looking into the issue.

Keep us posted and let us know what you discover ...

Has there been an update to the paypal servers in the paypal code for zen-cart since version 1.5.4 was released? when I try to ping to api-3t.paypal.com the name resolves, but times out and cannot get there. Doing a trace route to the same never gets to this server either. PayPal had me run a trace route to my domain name, not sure how this helps - gets there just fine. They also had me run the following curl command:

curl -s https://pilot-payflowpro.paypal.com -d "PARTNER=PayPal&PWD=MyPassword&VENDOR=MyMerchantID&USER=MyMerchantID&TENDER=C&ACCT=5105105105105100&TRXTYPE=S&EXPDATE=1212&AMT=1.00" -v

Which completed without error. This makes me question whether the server names changed recently and I missed the update.

PayPal has come back and said there is nothing on their side that would be causing this issue. Further they provided a couple of other ZenCart sites as proof that things are working. Meanwhile, my site is still unable to process payments and I'm continuing to lose money. My hosting company is also saying there was nothing changed and are unable to help me further.

Anyone have some ideas? Please.

Hi

Just a couple of extra checks you can try.

When running the curltester.php add ?details=on to the url

e.g.
extras/curltester.php?details=on

also try running

extras/ipncheck.php

Thanks for all the tips and suggestions. I spent 9 hours on the phone with tech support from both my hosting company and PayPal. Both of which said there was nothing wrong on their end and there was nothing they could do.

Then, (and I hate it when this kind of thing happens), the site just started working again. I'm glad it's working, but why did it go down, and how did it get fixed????

Guess I may never know.