iHostDev/iPanel serious problems with licensing server - Ignorant support

[James]

Anybody with an iHostdev script? iHost or iPanel?

Well the last day or two has been a complete nightmare of the script (ipanel) timing out most of the time. It is due to their incompetent license checking system which queries their "license server". I have tried to explain this to Ryan and their sole developer named Steve Blinch but they are trying to heck tell us that it is our internet connections.

I have staff at several locations telling me of the same problems. Seems ihostdev are in their own imaginary world. I also have a script problem with their iPanel querying IPs, which they told me would be fixed if I upgraded a patch - it didn't fix the error. :knockedou And heck they are releasing new patches every few days! What kind of a dev is that? I had to already update our template system two times, which by the way is a maze of mess in organization!

Anyway, anybody had similar issues in the past 24-48 hours? Their support portal is also effected everytime and I just spent most of my day trying to get into their support portal each time whilst all the timeout stuff was going on. They stopped responding and none of my issues have gone away. I'm contemplating whether iPanel was a good choice at all! We have 300+ signups to be approved each day at the moment and as you can imagine this is a complete nightmare!

Cheers :beer:

James

[fnixws]

Sorry to say man, but IMO its at your servers end.

I use iPanel and have been over the last few days with no problems what so ever.
However when i was with another company (who i wont name) whos servers were having major problems, i had the same issues. The second i changed over to Complete Web Works / Desihost the issues stoped.

THo i must mention over the last few hrs, its been running cron jobs every 2 min, tho im pretty sure its todo with one of the external servers being down.

Their constant updates piss me off tho, even after i paid for installation, 2 days later there was an update and (altho ryan insisted i had the latest updates) i had to install it myself...

[James]

Like I said.. it's not our servers at ThePlanet.. And the issue is also with their support portal.

Try going on to your admin panel and browse around for ages. I did many various tests to verify that their server/licensing server is currently very unstable. ATM I cannot even access my admin panel of iPanel.

And.. does your ip query work in admin?

[fnixws]

allright 1 sec, ill start messing around a bit more.

[James]

For me even their main site is wonky. It's ok for a few mins then it is timing out. Same like in admin/members areas of my iPanel. Sometimes times out, sometimes license invalid!

[fnixws]

hmmm.. ok as far as im concerned, everything is working as it should be.
Even their site is loading nice and fast.

Im guessing theres problems somewhere between you and their licencing server.

Any specific test you want me to do, i got to goto bed, so reply quick :D

[James]

It's not around me for sure. My staff are in the US and experienced the same problems. And like I mentioned our server is at ThePlanet, not my back garden. I'm thinking that they flunked one of their patches. iPanel isn't exactly well organized and professionally done. Which version of iPanel you using? What about the IP query tool?

[fnixws]

using v3.6.14
IP tool works fine, tho its external anyway.

Anyways, I better goto bed
Goodnight and goodluck, ill check back in the morning.

[James]

:D No I meant searching for an account by its IP name... Not the IP whois tool. Never mind.

[dmonde]

Being ones of James' staff, I can say he is not making this up. We are on opposite continents but still both get timeout errors and invalid license messages. It is really a pain when you are going through 300 or so approvals and all of a sudden it times out, tells you your ipanel bandwidth has been exceeded or that your license is invalid!

[James]

I'm not getting any help from iHostDev.

The more I look into this, the more I find out that their recent 3.6.14, and 3.6.15 patches contributed to this problem.

I reverted certain files back to 3.6.13 again and it appears to be working better now. I have no idea how this contributes to timing out / invalid licensing errors, cannot look at the ioncube'd code (don't really see the point of this either).

If anybody find a similar problem let me know and I will tell you what I have done. But reverting the files fixed all the problems of timeouts, pending accounts not showing on the page, and the IP query problem as well.

I have to say to all iPanel users, do not use their patches... There are seriously bugged. If your system works, stick it out until a supposed "stable" version comes out.

Cheers.

[Dynash]

i use iHost. maybe it's because i haven't patched it.
the patch to me, make's it sound just like a beta. since it's not a full release, since you have to pay $11 for that to upgrade.


cannot look at the ioncube'd code (don't really see the point of this either).

and, so it's not nulled easily?
since the amount of work they have put into it for the price, i can see why the have ionCubed it.

[James]

Well no those are releases of patches to update the current versions.

I don't know. Personally I am not confident of the update patches they do anymore. Just got to find a stable setup and just stick with it. I remember experience the same kind of problems when iPanel was back in the 3.1.13 stages.

[James]

I spoke too soon. Now another period of "timeouts and invalid licenses" happened just now. Grr. Screw this software.

[James]

Definitely a problem with ihostdev.com, or in transit between them and ThePlanet. Not my internet :knockedou

[Dynash]

i must admit, i've had timeout problems through iHostDev.com before, but not while using iHost. only when i've visited it., and in Firefox the site doesn't work for me, only in Opera it loads like it should.

PM them on these forums (they posted somewhere inside Ads & Offers).

[James]

I am in communication with him again via ticket.

It's quite hard to make him understand that there may be some issues with the way script checks for the license or the license server itself. In the past it was rarer but last few days has been way frequent for me. It is a real puzzle and I just wondered if anybody else had the same problems at all, since Ryan said none of the 3000 users of his scripts complained.

[Dynash]

I am in communication with him again via ticket.

It's quite hard to make him understand that there may be some issues with the way script checks for the license or the license server itself. In the past it was rarer but last few days has been way frequent for me. It is a real puzzle and I just wondered if anybody else had the same problems at all, since Ryan said none of the 3000 users of his scripts complained.

give him access to your account, so he can see for himself.

[fnixws]

This morning, all still seems fine over this way.
Sorry dude, wish i could be of help.

[JonnyH]

Personally I've having some problems with the paypal gateway, the dev says its that they're not using the paypal link on invoice but I don't believe it personally. I can't look at the code since it's ioncubed.

[James]

I just wish somebody else would provide an alternative solution to iPanel.

I will see if things stabilize... As for anything else that don't work I would try reverting effected files to previous version from which you upgraded. If I hadn't done that I would be in tears by now. But still their license server is unreliable and Ryan refused a paid mod to bypass the license checking. (Just cannot be bothered if you ask me). I don't like the fact that I have to rely on the uptime of a license server.

[Dynash]

not to disrespect or bash iHostDev, nor an attack at Ryan & other developers, but i have always seen replies that state nothing but that the customer is always wrong, instead of beleving that their is a problem with their script.

hope it works though. for customers and developers.


Personally I've having some problems with the paypal gateway, the dev says its that they're not using the paypal link on invoice but I don't believe it personally. I can't look at the code since it's ioncubed.

that sounds like a stupid responce.. they have to click the link to pay as it's the only way?

[JohnN]

This is a recurring problem from years ago, they claimed they fixed it then and they clearly haven't.

[James]

Yes, this is not a bash. I've used iPanel probably more than anybody on several different sites, I do appreciate a lot of the features it brings.

I guess we also have to take into account that it is just Ryan at ihostdev, with his developer Steve Blinch it seems. They are probably good individuals but there are some aspects which really does frustrate. I have ignored it so far (all the little blips and bobs) but critical issues need critical attention and solution, a real solution fixing the root cause of problems, not a quick patch released 4 days later which actually makes things worse. As for the intermittent problem between server and licensing server, it is absolutely frustrating to the end of hell.

[iBrightDev]

i love how i have had to install the new version of iHost twice because all of a sudden my password just stopped working, oh, and now it isnt working again. iHost has gone down the crapper IMO.

[JonnyH]

not to disrespect or bash iHostDev, nor an attack at Ryan & other developers, but i have always seen replies that state nothing but that the customer is always wrong, instead of beleving that their is a problem with their script.

hope it works though. for customers and developers.



that sounds like a stupid responce.. they have to click the link to pay as it's the only way?
I understood Steve's response when he said that they need to do that so the tracking number gets through. It was just that all about 6 clients had the same problem and they tell me otherwise..

[James]

Actually my by-IP-searching in view accounts still does not work and their sole dev Steve Blinch is taking absolutely ages as usual. :tired2:


If you could get me ones that are valid i would like to verify this and get to the bottom of it. I have a feeling that it's not our network or your's but some where inbetween with a peering issue.

I have a call into our data center to look into any network issue outside there network just incase. I was doing some testing and i get 100ms pings to ihostdev which is good considering that server is located in the west coast of canada and i am on the eastern sea board.

So, the licensing server is in west coast of Canada. Why did he not choose a more globally friendly location in the major DCs of the US? So in effect, it doesn't matter where you or your website server is, if this west coast canadian server isn't working for whatever reason, hardware, network, or peering issues - your scripts will not work. (Now I kind of understand the intermittent problems I'm having) And what if something happens to Ryan or he forgot /couldn't afford to pay for his server? I absolutely hate this fact and total dependancy.

BTW the password not working problem, I recall that happened to me a few times with one of the earlier versions of iPanel. (it didn't change the admin password properly, cost me time reinstalling software numerous times)

[James]

Heard back from Steve:


I understand your (entirely valid) position that the *reason* for the licensing failures is irrelevant to the fact that they still dramatically affect your customers. That said, the iHostDev licensing servers are monitored 24/7 (from machines on a number of geographically separate networks) for everything from simple connectivity to bandwidth, latency, and packet loss, and we've not recently been showing any problems whatsoever from any of our monitoring locations. So it may be useful to perform the tests above -- it's quite possible that the problems could simply be minor issues at your own DC, and if they were resolved, it would eliminate this issue irrespective of the issue of iPanel's licensing approach.

And the IP querying is finally fixed, so I guess I'm content for now. As long as the licensing problem doesn't creep up again...

[ihostdev]

James,

The screen shot you showed just proves there was a issue with your server connection to our server. That celebrium server which is the back up server located in TX was working as you can see from there. The issue could have been anywhere from the planet to our server, but i assured you there were no network issue with our data center.

I personally use ipanel for several of my business's and experienced none of the slowness issue or any slowness in the support portal when we were talking back and forth.

I asked for a login to login to your system and the information you provided didn't work so i never got to even login to see what you were seeing since i could not reproduce it on our installs or any of our other customers installs.

I am not trying to do what other software companies do and place blame on someone else or there hardware, but with all the views of this thread and all the customer who use our software from this forum i am sure if this were a real issue with our data center others would have joined in this bashing thread to complain also.

As for the remark that you offered to pay for a unlicensed file, explained that we would have to create a whole new license type in phpaudit and for one client this was not something we do. (to be honest there is to much fraud no matter how well you verify every order for this license type)

As for where our main server is located, we own the server that is residing in our own half rack. It's located 10 miles from the USA boarder and i have never read anything that implies the usa data centers are more superior then Canadian data centers. We are in the same data center that peer1 runs so i guess you are going to say never colo with peer1 in that data center being one of the largest data center operators? I am sure if the networking was better in the usa they would not even bother with data centers in canada.

Dynash:

If you have any experience working with paypals ipn system then you would understand what was said. jonny's problem was that the payments were being registered in ipanel, but not associated with the users accounts, due to they used a different email address when ordering then was registered on there paypal account. The ipn system only returns the paypal users email address. So if they are using something other then that no software will know what account to apply the payment to, unless they add in there software like we use that they need to use the specified generated pay now link that sends a token with the payment so it gets returned with the ipn notification and can be identified with ipanel and the payment being applied to the proper account.

Some software gets away without having to do this but forcing users to enter in a return ipn url. After several complaints and request ages ago we moved to this method as many users run more then one business and needed that return url for there other software to work properly.

As for the constance updates no one is required to upgrade. We usually add new features and fixes for various things. We have several features that other software do not provide. We are supporting 3 control panels and some of these features rely on screen scrapping and when one of them makes a update like cpanel does regularly we sometimes need to update that feature to accommodate there changes. The last update we added support for 2 new forums, along with the ability to ban subdomain names during sign up.

With constantly adding new features and improving others there are always bound to be new bugs introduced in these features as no one software company out there releases anything without a single issue. We try our best to test everything before releasing it, but sometimes issues get by us as we are only human.

[James]

Appreciate your response Ryan, but I think most of the points you made, I think I already did mention them.

I do appreciate you answering my tickets in timely manner. The timeout/license problem is better now, but for 3-4 days it was a total nightmare.

Cheers.

[ihostdev]

i love how i have had to install the new version of iHost twice because all of a sudden my password just stopped working, oh, and now it isnt working again. iHost has gone down the crapper IMO.

If you submit a ticket we will look into this for you.

There is no reason to ever have to reinstall our software if the admin password is damaged or lost. We can in a ticket provide you the method to reset the password manually from phpmyadmin.

[iBrightDev]

If you submit a ticket we will look into this for you.

There is no reason to ever have to reinstall our software if the admin password is damaged or lost. We can in a ticket provide you the method to reset the password manually from phpmyadmin.

yeah, already found where to do that, but, besides the point. the passwords should never get lost or anything. i used the same pass for that as i have from the beginning, and the new version just seems to not be to stable. also, i liked it more when i could edit code and add things in that were not offered, but, now, the new version is not OS. that totally blows.

[ihostdev]

yeah, already found where to do that, but, besides the point. the passwords should never get lost or anything. i used the same pass for that as i have from the beginning, and the new version just seems to not be to stable. also, i liked it more when i could edit code and add things in that were not offered, but, now, the new version is not OS. that totally blows.

Yes and you are referring to a version thats was 3 years ago. We have not offered any versions other then ihost v1 as os and would not as to many people like to take others work and make a few changes and and call it there own.

[iBrightDev]

Yes and you are referring to a version thats was 3 years ago. We have not offered any versions other then ihost v1 as os and would not as to many people like to take others work and make a few changes and and call it there own.

i see where you are coming from, but, at the same time, it would be nice to add some other features in, ro hack it up enough to be able to use it as a plugin for my cms that i would be willing to give you the code for so that you could sell, but, last time i tried to contact anyone about working on a project like this, they refused to give me an os version even though i had paid for a full version. sort of disappointing to me.

[nealdxmhost]

I know one thing with these guys at iHost, I will never deal with them again, it seems to me that all they wanna do is grab the money and run. If these guys were working for me I would have fired them on the spot for their lousy attitude towards the customers. I ordered a paid installation from them and then I get an email saying they were having permission problems with various folders.... no sweat, I go in and fix that issue and proceed on to the general configuration. Import the DA accounts only to discover that only users get imported, no resellers. Make inquiry about this and was told only users get imported. Uninstall iHost, convert resellers back to users, re-install iHost, which I was able to do without a single problem in regards to permissions, import accounts and the resellers that were reverted to users still would not import. Anyhow I threw my hands up over this crappy piece of software which ate 44.95 out of me ($35 for the "professional install" and 9.95 for the monthly licensing fee). Anyhow I have asked them for a refund and they so far have not responded to a single one of my emails. Shows what a lousy operation that they run. My thought is this, if you are looking at iHost, think again because their service STINKS!!!! Go with WHMCS or AWBS instead. They have far better documentation and support for their products.