Then from what we can tell so far, it seems this problem is limited to sporadic IE users downloading .exe files, and quite probably caused by something introduced with the last batch of Windows Updates for this month, and unfortunately nothing we can do anything to mitigate, as it's entirely a client-side behavioral issue that transpires after our end has already staged the download for IE to manage on its own from that point onward.



We do have a way to offer multiple download links for a single product; however, this would increase the number of products your subscription plan would need to support (one for each file, and one more for the "bundle" that you'd actually sell):

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/help.package.htm#bundle



For buyers having a problem with expired WinZip trials, you could recommend an always-free alternative; my favorite is IZArc, others prefer 7-Zip. Perhaps you could add a link to the download page for one of those on your thank-you pages (similar to how many PDF eBook sellers include a link to download Adobe Reader or FoxIt Reader, etc.):

http://www.izarc.org/download.html

http://www.7-zip.org/download.html

I'd like to follow up on this freezing at the start of the download if I could. Is it happening before the run/save dialog (or whatever your IE normally does) comes up, or after? That makes a difference.



One problem we've had historically is anti-malware software that does proactive link scanning on web pages... we do some javascript trickery to stop these things from expiring links and doubly+ downloading files to scan, but it's possible they've worked around it and the same old problems are back--i.e. the hang you're seeing is the scanner downloading the whole file first to make sure it's safe, after which the download should proceed (again). If you disable this "feature" and test, do you still have this hangs-at-start problem? Just an idea...

Daniel,



Apparently even AVG Free includes a link scanner, since at least version 8. I'm not finding any reference to a way to just temporarily disable that feature, but here's how to install (the latest version) without that component in the first place, if you're willing to go to that length to test:



http://free.avg.com/us-en/faq.num-1338#num-1338

Daniel,



That does help. At this point, in regards to that particular problem, we suspect something related to the way newer versions of IE allow malware scanners to hook in. I don't think it's exclusive to AVG; we've had reports of the same problem with the free Microsoft Security Essentials as well.



The problematic interaction could be the SmartScreen feature; if you wanted to test that, reinstall AVG with the link scanner, and then disable SmartScreen (In Internet Explorer, click the Safety button on the toolbar. Point to SmartScreen Filter, and then click Turn Off SmartScreen Filter.) See if downloads are reliable or not.



The trick for us is to come up with a way to work around these problems on our end. I briefly considered setting a bucket policy at S3 based on the user agent string, so that link scanners would just get a short response and hopefully move on, but it turns out that at least one version of the AVG link scanner uses a string identical to IE6. As much as I would enjoy blocking all users of that particular security and compatibility disaster, probably not a good idea.

Hi,



We sell only PDF files, no exe's, and have been having the same problem for days.



Half of our buyers since Saturday have either given up and contacted us or used up their 5 attempts. Most report that the failure comes at the start of the download.



They aren't interested in troubleshooting, I tried with a few and they started suspecting I was running a scam.



It's a shame, if it keeps up, I'll have to dump e-Junkie and just start sending PDF files as attachments.



Morris

It's now been more than a week that one of my buyers has been unable to succesfully complete the download of one of my items that until now has never had any download problems.



After reading this thread, I have to agree wth MadMoe: while I love e-junkie and its overall fabulous ease of use, unless this problem is solved, I'd have to find another service to avoid this problem. Having said that, I urge e-junkie to make the solution of this problem an absolute top priority issue, even calling in outside experts to solve this problem ASAP. Sometimes, that's the cost of doing business and yes, it bites into the budget.



Like others who have posted here, the need for delivering .exe files is paramount. As simple as PDF files are to open and use, ther's still a huge number of Internet users who will never understand, or take the time to understand, how to open them and then how to find them or place shortcuts on their desktops. I speak from experience with buyers: an .exe file works and keeps buyers happy.



I was just about to launch a special sales campaign for my downloadable e-junkie products; now, unfortunately, I guess I'll have to wait until I hear from you saying that the problem has been resolved--so please be SURE to send an e-mail as soon as it has for all our sakes.



For what it's worth, here's the info on the problem the buyer I mention here is having.



Repeated download attempts keep timing out. He suspected it might have been Norton antivirus software, disabled it, and no luck. Then he decided to try on his netbook. Both systems running Windows 7. Here's an email he just sent this morning: "I used my Netbook, shut down Norton and got to the download Website. I started the download, but it did not seem to be making any progress. After about 5 minutes I received the following message. 'Internet Explorer can not download mpmsetup.exe from s3.amazonaws.com. The operation timed out.' Help"



Like the buyer says, "HELP!"



gkaywood

Daniel,



Thanks for the additional testing--and sorry we're having to have you do this! Just you're our most reliable reproducer right now :-/ I've got some additional test cases I'm working on which I'll send you through support.



Everyone,



Rest assured we are escalating this internally.

I had a new ebook release on Thursday and so far 18 of my customers have experienced this hanging download. This has never happened before. It doesn't seem to be related to the file format of the book they're downloading; it's happened with multiple types of ebook formats.



Any closer to a solution? I'd be happy to provide info on the customers' OS/Browser combos or the order numbers of each case it that would help.



-JCP Books

Hi, I thought I'd add what my customers are experiencing. We only sell mp3 and pdf files and I've been getting more and more complaints from customers.



I tried to download once on my laptop and everything worked fine. A couple of days later I tried again and it completly stalled out. I hadn't changed anything as far as firewalls, AVG or malware protection. The only difference was that I was using a slower internet connection the second time and it just stopped with out even downloading a thing. I left it open for a half hour and it didn't move.



I have a windows vista 32 bit operating system. AVG and malware antivirus software and IE8. Customers have written into me saying both the mp3 files and the .zip files that we use to sell albums are not downloading. So far I have been re-directing them to Firefox and Chrome and it seems to work just fine.



Let me know what I can do to help get this figured out.



Thanks

Positive Music and Downloads

I have been having this problem since January and posted under a different message. Internet Explorer Error is the title.



I use PDF files and a few .zip files. My files are served from external servers, mine and another sellers server.



When the customers copies and pastes from the email they can download the files. When I use yousendit.com to send them the file, they can download it just fine.



This is a huge problem for me. Not only does it frustrate my customers but it takes customer support time to handle the problem.



I have noticed that most the transactions have two download attempts and the ones that contact me with expired links have the max setting of 5 attempts. I think the fact that most transactions have 2 attempts means that just about everyone is having a problem. I don't know if they are click to the download after ordering or using the email link. The ones that contact me are using the email link.



It is not possible to ask them to install another browser. Many don't know what copy and paste means or how to do it from email to browser.

There is literally no functional difference whatsoever between clicking the link to the thank-you/download page in the email vs. copying that link and pasting it into the browser's address bar. I think it only appeared to be a "solution" simply because the second download attempt often succeeds after the first one fails, regardless of how the buyer reached the download page in either case.



That's because the real problem seems to be related to anti-virus/security software on the buyer's computer trying to provide "real time Web browsing protection" (or equivalent marketing-speak) by preemptively scanning Web page links and downloaded files looking for malicious files before the user can open them and potentially unleash a virus or other malware on their computer. Those pre-scans are apparently sometimes getting tripped up and stalling the download on the first try but, depending on which security software they're using and how it works, by the time users try the download a second time it's either finished pre-scanning the file or has already logged the actual file-download URL as scanned, so then the download goes normally without the security software's intervention holding up the whole show.



That seems to suggest that MAYBE, at least with some security software, asking buyers to wait a while before trying the download again, might have some positive effect on their results at the next download attempt. Ultimately however, we may all just be stuck waiting on Microsoft to release a bugfix for whatever component of Windows or IE is broken that these security programs are all trying to hook into and apparently getting stuck on. Microsoft releases a big batch of Windows Updates on the second Tuesday of each month, so let's all keep our fingers crossed for next week Tuesday.

Why would they be able to successfully download from yousendit.com then?

While it's good to see that e-junkie is working on this problem, it's disheartening, to say the least, to hear the suggestion that I should say to a customer "Well, you might have to download what you bought again" and even worse to read that "we all might be stuck waiting on Microsoft...."



Sellers of e-junkie use it because it's a 24/7 service.



I would expect, as radical as it may sound, that the e-junkie techs should also be working 24/7 to fix what's broken and bring in outside help if that's what it takes.



I understand that the problem may well be within IE and is Microsoft-driven. But it certainly e-junkie's responsibility to fix it or come up with a temporary alternative, and quickly.

I'm also having the same problem as discussed above. My experience has been Windows Vista, or 7, 32 bit and 64 bit OS.



As indicated, it is becoming a problem with irate customers thinking you're trying to scam them.



I'm also thinking of switching to something more dependable, like 1shoppingcart.com but I've been here a long time, enjoy using ejunkie and don't want to switch.

My products are all zip files, and I've experienced a drastic increase in the number of people complaining that product didn't download over the last week or so.



My most popular products are bundles, so they buy a product that has 7 separate zip files to download and often it's just ONE of the 7 that times out and they try until they use their attempts up. It's hard to imagine that a scan would effect just ONE of the 7 files?



Also, the majority of my customers are photographers and mac users, so I'd be surprised if all of these are IE users.. I will start to ask though to know for sure.

Everyone,



Please, if you haven't already, open a ticket with support by using the contact form, so that we can track your specific incidence of this issue.



We have a team working on it, but they're still having trouble even reproducing the problem, trying all kinds of things, so every little bit of data you can send us, any hint of commonality between users/systems experiencing the problem (or refutation of what we previously thought) could be helpful. Everything down to individual affected transaction ids.



Our most reliable reproducer at first emailed us yesterday wondering what we did to fix it, saying that he hasn't had any complaints in a week now and can't reproduce it himself. We haven't made any changes; that's how crazy this problem is.



Honestly, unless we can develop a repeatable test case, we're at the point of just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks; taking out various components of our download process (all of which are there for a reason!) to see what happens. I am about to disable the s3 cache for everyone who posted to this thread, so that your customers' downloads will be served directly from our servers; we'll try that for a day and see if there's any impact.



Ellen

E-junkie Engineering & Development