S2 subscriber downloads redirect to membership options page

#1

I just noticed on my website http://schooloflifedesign.com that when a logged in subscriber (level 1) or admin tries to download files (“subscriber download” on a page like this: http://www.schooloflifedesign.com/product/monthly-manifestation-manual/), the “subscriber download” link redirects to the membership options page.

The error that my firefox browser console says is: “Can’t Load URL: The domain of this URL isn’t included in the app’s domains. To be able to load this URL, add all domains and subdomains of your app to the App Domains field in your app settings.”

Anyone know what that means? Thank you!

#2

s2Member doesn’t talk of Apps, so that message is being generated either by your theme or by another plugin. That suggests that you have a theme or plugin conflict, so you need to deactivate all themes except s2Member and change to a default theme. Then see if your downloads work. If they do, you have a conflict.

Then you reactivate each item one by one and re-test to find the culprit.

#3

Thanks for your reply Tim!

After switching themes AND deactivating every plugin except S2member, the problem still persists. So, no matter what theme is activated, and even if every plugin is deactivated but S2, the S2 download links still redirect to the membership options page. The URL looks like this:

http://www.schooloflifedesign.com/sold-membership-options/?_s2member_vars=file..level..1..file..potions_screen.pdf..Lz9zMm1lbWJlcl9maWxlX2Rvd25sb2FkPXBvdGlvbnNfc2NyZWVuLnBkZg%3D%3D&_s2member_sig=1467907707-fb071d07d15187d34f3dd2d00c23f689

when I’m trying to get to:
http://www.schooloflifedesign.com/?s2member_file_download=potions_screen.pdf

I’m logged in as Admin, and the same thing happens when I’m logged in as a test S2 level #1 member.

Any other ideas? Or suggestions on how to debug? Thanks y’all!

#4

There may be a problem in your s2M settings, as such redirect must happen only if user is not logged in, or is not a paid member.

Also, if possible, find what is the problematic URL exactly.

#5

Jessica, did the message change when you changed themes and deactivated plugins? Have you set up some security settings outside of WordPress, for example in a .htaccess file or in cPanel?

#6

Yes, when I switched themes, the “Apps” related message stopped in the browser console. Now when I’m in a different theme it says “[HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily 1849ms]”

I haven’t changed any security settings outside of wordpress lately but I wonder if a plugin upgrade edited an htaccess file.

I’ll try deactivating all the plugins again and see what the console says. Thanks for following the thread :slightly_smiling:

edit: even after deactivating all the plugins again, I just keep getting the “moved temporarily” message in the console. I’ll start scouring my cPanel to see if I can find anything there.

another edit: I don’t know if this has anything to do with it, but when I go to reactivate my Jetpack plugin I get this error: "Error 503 Service Unavailable
Service Unavailable
Guru Meditation:
XID: 275129822

Varnish cache server"
#7

@jessicamullen Seen your last message, I would suggest to do a deep check of the site. Maybe there is some malicious code.

#8

@jessicamullen, the message about Varnish cache suggests that there is a problem with your host’s setup.

The first thing I’d do would be to see if you can disable Varnish from within cPanel. (Varnish often causes problems with s2Member anyway.)

If you can’t do that, or it makes no difference, I suggest you contact your host. (Who is your host, by the way?)

#9

@jessicamullen I agree with @KTS915, better check Varnish first.

#10

Thanks for the replies guys. My host is Bluehost. I asked them how to turn off varnish and they said do it in the htaccess file, so I used Header set Cache-Control no-cache in both the root directory and the schooloflifedesign directory (where the site is). This did not work.

I asked Bluehost if they had any other suggestions from the server side but apparently everything is running fine. They won’t login to my site or mess with my plugins so it appears to be a dead end.

I haven’t given up yet though!

#11

@jessicamullen, this is probably not what you want to hear, but do yourself a favor and change host. Bluehost are one of the worst. I can suggest an alternative, who is not expensive and would even move your site for you for free, and you won’t believe the difference. No doubt others can suggest good alternatives too!

#12

Haha definitely not what I want to hear. I’ll take recommendations for new hosts though.

#13

@jessicamullen: I’m with LightningBase, and they are quite outstanding. If you Google them, you’ll find that everyone raves about their customer service, and that’s what convinced me to try them. And those reviews were right: Chris Piepho is amazing, and my sites are blisteringly fast.

You can get a more objective idea here: http://reviewsignal.com/blog/2015/07/28/wordpress-hosting-performance-benchmarks-2015/ where you’ll see LightningBase outperformed hosts like WP Engine that charges goodness knows how much more. (You’ll also see that Bluehost doesn’t fare too well.)

#14

Cool thanks for the rec and resources. Turns out my Bluehost plan won’t allow disabling of Varnish! Is there anything else I can try other than switching hosts and crying about it? Maybe I’ll try a fresh install of WP and see if I can get it to work there.

#15

@jessicamullen: There’s only one way. That’s a Varnish error message, so you can’t overcome it except by disabling or reconfiguring Varnish.

The one way is this: you will need to switch your sites to https and get an SSL certificate (assuming Bluehost permits such things). That should disable Varnish – at least, on a good host it will – because Varnish doesn’t work with sites using an https connection.

I suspect Bluehost insist on Varnish being on because if they disable it for you, the server configuration they use will mean disabling it for everyone else on the same server. That illustrates one of the main problems with typical shared hosting like Bluehost and GoDaddy; you are constrained by your neighbors’ expectations.

And I bet if they turn Varnish off, your site (and your neighbors’) will slow to a crawl. Because the purpose of Varnish is to speed up content delivery. But it’s no use to anyone running a membership site: you need to use other means of making things run fast.

1 Like
#16

Ok, thanks for the excellent tip Tim. I can buy SSL through Bluehost. Do you think the $4/month one will do the trick, and do you think that’s possibly all I need to do to get s2member working again? Here are the specs/options (ideally I can use it on two domains I have?):

option 1:
Positive SSL
Only $4.17/mo.
Subdomain Security: www.domain.com
Warranty/Insurance: $10,000

option 2:
Positive Wildcard SSL
Only $12.42/mo.
All 1st-level subdomains
Warranty/Insurance: $10,000

option 3:
Comodo SSL
Only $6.67/mo.
Domain Name Only
Free EV upgrade for 1st year
Warranty/Insurance: $250,000
Site Seal Instant click validation

option 4:
Comodo Wildcard SSL
Only $24.92/mo.
All 1st-level subdomains
Warranty/Insurance: $250,000
Site Seal Instant click validation

They also say I need to buy a dedicated IP for $6/month to get the SSL.
My current hosting is $13/month and the added charges would bring it up to $23/month (assuming I can go with the cheapest SSL). Seems reasonable to me, at least until my paid time with Bluehost is up.

Whatch’all think?

#17

@jessicamullen: Jessica, honestly, I think it’s all a scam, and it isn’t guaranteed to resolve your problem, because that is caused by your host’s own server configuration, and we can’t be sure that just bypassing Varnish will sort it out.

And I don’t use that word lightly. An SSL certificate these days should be free. Completely free. See https://letsencrypt.org/ (I use them, and it actually works better than the Comodo certificate I had before Let’s Encrypt became available.)

And there’s no way you should need a dedicated IP either if your host actually had its act together. You should be able to use SNI instead: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Name_Indication And that should be free (or very inexpensive) too!

LightningBase would charge you $10 per month for one site (but the prices come down per site if you have more) and you get SSL for free, and SNI for something very small (so small I think I paid for it for several years at once). You can have http/2 as well if you want (also free). They have Varnish too, but will just switch it off if you ask (or it will be automatically disabled if you run https). And they’ll move your site for free, and answer all your questions fully without scamming you.

Companies like Bluehost suck users in by charging a small monthly fee, but then they nickle-and-dime you to such an extent that they can end up being much more expensive, while the server environment is nothing like as good as it would be if a slightly more expensive host (with all the other elements built-in) had been chosen instead.

#18

Thanks Tim! I signed up for a month of Lightning Base (hope that affiliate went through). My site should be back in action in a couple days, and hopefully I won’t have to return here for help! I’ll let you know how it works out. Thanks again for all the advice and education.

#19

My pleasure, Jessica! Please let me know how you get on!

#20

It’s official! Switching webhosts did fix the problem! Still working on turning on the (included!) SSL ;-D