Paypal - session logged out - please sign in again

What browser is this customer using?
What operating system?
Does the problem continue if attempted from another computer?
What firewall software/hardware is the customer using?

I am having this same problem with PayPal IPN. I don't know if the customers are trying to use a credit card or if they have a PayPal account - I didn't think to ask them that as I have never experienced this problem with my previous shopping cart system. I have had at least 5 customers tell me they are getting a timeout message when trying to pay with PayPal. The only patch I can seem to find is for PayPal Express which I am not using.

The patches posted in the PayPal Patch thread are for "PayPal" ... both IPN and Express Checkout:
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56216

1. When did these customers start complaining? Over what time period have you had these complaints?
2. Do you see the same thing when you do a test transaction? Can you reproduce the problem?
3. Were there any successful transactions between those that encountered the timeout message ?
4. What is PayPal tech support telling you about this when you try to reproduce it with them on the phone ?

Instructions for testing PayPal transactions can be found here:
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/PayPal

Instructions for enabling debug logging can be found here:
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61199

I installed the patch files but still have the same problem.

1. I have had complaints since I began taking orders last Friday (3/16).
2. My test transactions went through fine both with PayPal account and credit card payment.
3. Yes, I have had several successful transactions.
4. I emailed Paypal and have not heard back from them yet.

I just switched to this format last week, before that I was using another shopping cart system and host, using PayPal for payments and have never had this problem. The people that are experiencing this are return customers and did not have this problem with the previous shopping cart.

Have you seen this error message yourself ? Are you able to reproduce it on-demand ?
I can't .. which is why I'm asking. It's kinda hard to fix something that can't be triggered easily, let alone confirmed that a solution is found, etc. Hmmmm...

DrByte:

Have you seen this error message yourself ? Are you able to reproduce it on-demand ?
I can't .. which is why I'm asking. It's kinda hard to fix something that can't be triggered easily, let alone confirmed that a solution is found, etc. Hmmmm...

No I have not, I just had someone email me what they received trying to process a payment with their paypal account:

Enter Payment Information

aoladp://MA17026817-0001/pixel.gif
Your session has timed out, please log in again.

PayPal is the authorized payment processor for Bo Peep's Wool Shop. To continue, please enter the required information below. Learn more about PayPal.

I have not been able to reproduce this issue, my test payments went through without any problems. I understand it is difficult to figure out a problem without being able to reproduce it but I know this is happening because these are regular customers that are experiencing it.

Where are these customers located?
What are their IP addresses?
Are they all AOL users?
Do they show up in your whos-online tracking (admin->tools->whos online) ? (this list only shows the last 24 minutes).

DrByte:

Where are these customers located? they are in different places
What are their IP addresses? I don't have that information
Are they all AOL users? I don't know
Do they show up in your whos-online tracking (admin->tools->whos online) ? I haven't checked this (this list only shows the last 24 minutes).
..........

To anyone having this problem .... please determine whether or not the customer is accessing your site and/or PayPal via AOL. This may or may not be an AOL issue, but could very well be a proxy issue with various ISPs.

AOL has some odd server/proxy round-robin behaviour, which often causes the address of their "request" to change each time they click a link on a webpage. Thus, if PayPal (or even your store) was expecting them to come from a certain address in order to ensure they were in fact the same person who was logged in at a previous screen ... but they come from a different address (IP address from AOL for example), then PayPal will treat them as logged out and ask them to sign in again.

There's nothing Zen Cart can do about that with respect to PayPal transactions.

I have 3 customer acounts in the database with aol email addresses. Only one of these has made a purchase (using the Paypal IPN). The other two have made no purchases which makes me think that they maybe had a problem with the checkout but did not say anything about it and simply left. of the people who have mentioned a problem, some of them have email addresses with domain names relating to other ISPs. There doesn't seem to be any correlaion there.

I have installed the patch and haven't had any reports of problems since then but its obviously impossible to say whether anything has been solved when I have always been unable to reproduce the problem on any of my computers.

thecomicbookshop:

... its obviously impossible to say whether anything has been solved when I have always been unable to reproduce the problem on any of my computers.

Completely understandable ... same here !

DrByte:

To anyone having this problem .... please determine whether or not the customer is accessing your site and/or PayPal via AOL.

AOL has some odd server/proxy round-robin behaviour, which often causes the address of their "request" to change each time they click a link on a webpage. Thus, if PayPal (or even your store) was expecting them to come from a certain address in order to ensure they were in fact the same person who was logged in at a previous screen ... but they come from a different address (IP address from AOL for example), then PayPal will treat them as logged out and ask them to sign in again.

There's nothing Zen Cart can do about that with respect to PayPal transactions.

I used AOL to do my test transactions - both PayPal and credit card through PayPal and they went through fine so I don't see how this could be the problem.

I understand the ZenCart can't do anything with respect to PayPal transactions but I did not have this problem with the other shopping cart system I was using (with the same customers) so it seems to me that ZenCart has some part in the equation.

slightly different scenerio but with my last webhost I was suddenly made aware that some NTL users were unable to view my complete site. A lot of head scratching and pulling of hair took place until I venture onto a forum called NTLHell.co.uk or similar. I then posed the problem to them and asked that as many as possile tried to gain access to my account - a great response - some could, some couldn't, some did sometimes.

It wasn't until I had a lot of replies I realised it mainly localised in South of England that the users could not see the site. It turned out to be the NTL router/server at Brighton was blocking my site although they wouldn't admit it at least I had a workround wich was to get customers to alter their proxy server to a northern one - problem solved.

The reason for posting this is to possibly explain the some can, some can't problem - I haven't had time to research properly but I googled "AOL problem" and came up with a couple of forums that might help being most members are AOL users - just need to ask for them to do test purchases etc.. - perhaps problem might reveal itself clearer

Just a thought
John

My customer that have been having this problem are in different countries as well as different states here in the US. The ones that have responded to me regarding the AOL issue DO NOT have AOL.

What is your URL ?

DrByte:

What is your URL ?

http://www.bopeepswoolshop.com/zencart

Have I been forgetten?

Forgotten? no.

But haven't got enough data nor been able to reproduce the problem consistently enough to have any sort of fix for it.

My shop has been extremely quiet for weeks, then I receive an email stating he has been having the same problem and getting a "session timed out" reply when using Paypal - thought I had resolved it - sadden to realise I hadn't.

Has there been any updates before I re-activate the old OSCommerce site again <sigh> :(

Further to the above - I have applied the latest patch - had my customer check it and it still times out the session.
He is a yahoo customer in uk and has not had this trouble previously