Server performance

[cmayo]

New user here... when setting up my account yesterday and attempting to upload my MP3 files (~5mb ea), I encountered several problems. Many files required 2-3 attempts before they would upload (message "The connection was reset") and just now when testing delivery of a bundled album, the system went to a "verifying payment" screen after the PayPal transaction was complete where it hung for almost a minute, then gave me the message:



"The payment processor has not yet informed us about your payment. Your order will be processed as soon as they inform us about the payment.



If required, any information related to this order will be emailed to you at email@server.com. If you do not see the email in your inbox, please check your spam filter or bulk email folder.



Please contact email@server.com for any questions."



The PayPal purchase confirmation arrived in my mailbox almost immediately, but it was five minutes before I received an email with a download link.



What's up with E-Junkie performance? Will I continue to see these kinds of issues if I go forward with my store?

[E-junkie_Guru]

The upload issue and the post-checkout order-processing issue are unrelated, so I'll address each one in turn here.



This help page explains some common reasons for upload problems and how to resolve them:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/trouble.downloads.uploading.htm



That said, we have noticed reports of random upload issues affecting a tiny minority of users lately and been trying to track down the reason. Unfortunately, there's no clear cause or any common factor we've been able to identify so far, but it seems to be related to upstream network issues (e.g., ISP connectivity or router hardware) rather than hardware/software issues on our users' own computers.



If possible, you might try rebooting your router (if there's no power switch, just pull the power plug, wait ~10 sec., then plug it back in), or retry the upload from another location with a different Internet connection. If that's not practical or still doesn't work, you can email our support team for an alternate method of providing file(s) for us to upload for you:

https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/contact.php



The post-checkout thank-you page you quoted above is a generic page we display to buyers when they arrive there before we have received IPN (Instant Payment Notification) from PayPal confirming their payment. PayPal can sometimes take longer to complete a payment than it takes for the buyer to finish checkout; we cannot process the order until we receive IPN from PayPal for their payment, at which time we issue download links, send emails to you and the buyer, and log the order details.



If you are having to approve payments manually in PayPal, please see this help page for instructions on having that handled automatically:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/trouble.paypal-pending-payments.htm



The troubleshooting instructions on this help page will walk you through sorting out other common issues that may interfere with transmission of IPNs from PayPal to our system:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/trouble.paypal.order-not-processed.htm

[cmayo]

As a developer myself I can appreciate how difficult it can be to resolve some of these issues. I haven't had a chance to fool with the checkout procedure to see whether that problem might recur, but I had to re-tag and re-upload ten MP3's this evening with about the same results as before:



Product ID Uploads Required

1338955 1

1338957 1

1338960 1

1338961 1

1338963 5

1338964 1

1338965 1

1338966 3

1338967 2

1338968 3



And one 43mb ZIP file was re-tried a whopping 15 times without success until I finally gave up.



To informally test throughput on an independent system, I performed 20 test uploads of these files to my own PHP upload script running on a client's development server and was successful 20 of 20 times.



Additionally, I performed five test uploads of the 43mb ZIP file which were also successful five of five attempts.



These issues are occurring when I'm working on my client's account (Client ID 272195). He's subscribed at the 20 item/100MB level and currently has 49.69MB uploaded, so there should certainly be enough space for a 43mb ZIP file.



Any other suggestions beyond rebooting my router?

[cmayo]

I wanted to update this thread with my latest results. After another ten failed attempts to upload my 43mb ZIP file, I set up a portable hotspot with my Android/T-Mobile phone and connected my PC to that network instead of using my U-Verse connection.



I was able to successfully re-upload ten MP3 files with zero problems, and was able to successfully upload my 43mb ZIP file on the first try.

[E-junkie_Guru]

Yes, you might retry uploading from another location with a different ISP uplink if possible; otherwise, please contact our Support team, so we can offer an alternate method of providing the file for us to upload for you:

https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/contact.php



The problem is something peculiar to our own uploader tool and certain unknown but rare network routing issues upstream from the tiny minority of affected users' own computers. We haven't been able to isolate any common factors such as particular ISPs or modem/router hardware/firmware, but we've pretty much ruled out OS/browser/NIC or other issues on affected users' computers, as they can usually upload successfully by using a different ISP uplink.



The issue actually affects me consistently whenever I work from home, but not at the office, using the very same laptop in both locations, and I have no trouble using other uploader scripts regardless of my location, but so far, we haven't been able to identify any clues by watching the issue occur as I reproduce it live in realtime.

[cmayo]

These are tough issues to diagnose, especially since the PHP upload mechanism is pretty much a black box and you can't really see what's going on with it. If I were working on the issue and could consistently reproduce the issue, I'd set up a stripped-down test copy of the uploader script without the progress bar code and if that worked, then start adding code back in and see where it breaks, but I imagine you've already been down that road.



At any rate, I think I'll now be able to consistently update my client's content via my cell phone so my problem is more or less solved. Give me a shout if I can help or you'd like me to test with you down the road. I won't be keeping this demo account but will be working through my client's account, and will always be available at the email address associated with this account.



Cheers!