Website Offline/Renewal Notice Coincidence?

[IndianaJoe]

Today I came across an issue with my website that the admins on here are basically refusing to acknowledge is an issue. This is multi-layered so hopefully I can explain this as best possible.

9:15am I added an advertisement on the website without any issues that I saw
Starting at 9;26am until 10:10am this error was in my System Log multiple times
Error: Class '\IPS\Helpers\Form\Captcha\' not found in /var/www/html/system/Helpers/Form/Captcha.php:43
9:56am received a message my site was down and went to check on it. Saw the big red box that I needed to renew my license. Thus I renewed it immediately.
9:57am and 10:01am renewed license key

Approximately 10:10am the site was back to normal.

Now support is very limited and kinda chippy at even helping with this issue. The first issue is I never received any renewal notices as I usually do(yes checked spam). Support refused to acknowledge nor even look at this. The second issue is how would the Captcha.php file disappear and then reappear within an hour? No changes were made to the system other than what was listed and no one has access to the server other than myself.

Any help would be appreciated as I have exhausted my efforts with the Invision support.

[Randy Calvert]

OK.  A couple of notes/thoughts:

• Regarding renewal notices...  those notices are sent via email.  I understand that you did not find it in your spam folder or inbox...  but it's possible your mail provider blocked IPS from sending it.  For example, I use Sendgrid for sending email and in looking at the logs...  I see about 10% of messages sent specifically to Hotmail end up being rejected by Microsoft because they don't like the Sendgrid IP.  The user never got the message, and I know it was sent....  but the destination server refused to accept it.  My guess is if it's not in your spam folder or inbox that your ISP blocked its delivery.  
• Regarding Captcha.php...  the file never disappeared.  That's not what the error is saying.  It's saying the file Captcha.php is there, but the class inside of it was not.  It could be related to permissions or a cache issue.  There's not an easy way to troubleshoot it after the fact.  If you actually think it's a problem with the license...  block the license server and then re-run all of your tasks related to IPS phoning home.  If it happens again, then you have a case to be made and you can work with support.

 

[IndianaJoe]

2 minutes ago, Randy Calvert said:

OK.  A couple of notes/thoughts:

• Regarding renewal notices...  those notices are sent via email.  I understand that you did not find it in your spam folder or inbox...  but it's possible your mail provider blocked IPS from sending it.  For example, I use Sendgrid for sending email and in looking at the logs...  I see about 10% of messages sent specifically to Hotmail end up being rejected by Microsoft because they don't like the Sendgrid IP.  The user never got the message, and I know it was sent....  but the destination server refused to accept it.  My guess is if it's not in your spam folder or inbox that your ISP blocked its delivery.  

 

I have a gmail address and even received the Payment Recieved email immediately. The last email communication was in October when I purchased the Downloads application.

4 minutes ago, Randy Calvert said:

• Regarding Captcha.php...  the file never disappeared.  That's not what the error is saying.  It's saying the file Captcha.php is there, but the class inside of it was not.  It could be related to permissions or a cache issue.  There's not an easy way to troubleshoot it after the fact.  If you actually think it's a problem with the license...  block the license server and then re-run all of your tasks related to IPS phoning home.  If it happens again, then you have a case to be made and you can work with support.

 

I honestly have no clue why this all would happen at pretty much the same exact time. After I was notified that the website was having issues I went to the site and saw the big red box of shame. I immediately renewed and then updated/reinput the license key. It still took a little bit for everything to go back to normal.

I checked the server and that file had no changes since Feb 2nd. If it was indeed a caching issue, I still would like to know how to prevent it or even have the remote possibility that the devs see an issue.

How would I block the license server? 

[opentype]

4 minutes ago, IndianaJoe said:

I honestly have no clue why this all would happen at pretty much the same exact time.

It’s just a coincidence. 

[Randy Calvert]

I agree with opentype that it's a coincidence...  however you can block outbound requests to remoteservices.invisionpower.com (remember that the IP can change as its using AWS Cloudfront so the IP changes frequently).  

It's not recommended or supported by IPS to do this.  So just saying that for transparency sake.  

[IveLeft...]

2 hours ago, Randy Calvert said:

Regarding renewal notices...  those notices are sent via email.  I understand that you did not find it in your spam folder or inbox...  but it's possible your mail provider blocked IPS from sending it.

Whilst I agree - I also disagree - In some instances I dont believe the customer does always get an email - this is fact from my own experience - and it wasn't blocked by my mail provider in this particular instance as it was my own mail server on a dedicated running mail scanner under whm - nothing was blocked, rejected or in the logs - I didnt receive emails for one of my licenses - didnt matter to me as I knew it was expired and I no longer wanted or needed it but just saying it does happen.....