on Jan 14th, 2006
Update
So I think I’m going to be moving over to another VPServer. I’m having major FTP problems with my current hosting provider (hosteasier.com). They have a good price, and excellent customer service, but they’re having problems that they can’t fix. I can’t upload more than 10 files at a time via FTP because it always times-out. Even checking my e-mail takes a while and sometimes doesn’t work. I couldn’t send an e-mail yesterday for over an hour cause it would just keep timing out. Access to the sites can sometimes be slow also.
I went over to jeremy’s house last week to run some tests from his machine and had the same results. Also, about a week ago Matt Ryczek complained that he wasn’t able to send anything either… and lives well away from here… so it’s not my ISP.
Hosteasier’s final conclusion was that their server is ok, and it must be something on my end. I insisted that it’s not, and their response was “Do you have a firewall turned on?”. Grr.
So I have hihowareyou.com on midphase.com. I figured since I have MidPhase hosting it until next June or July, I’ll just keep it over there until I have to switch it to my server. I’ve never had any FTP problems with them (and they’re even in the same datacenter as hosteasier!). Upload 256 files in 22 folders? No problem! And I never have any problem checking mail from that server. They also have support forums where everyone who has midphase hosting can talk to eachother. So if a problem (like my FTP problem) comes up, you can ask around and see if anyone else is having the same problem.
MidPhase offers VPServers now, and I’m going to sign up for one of those and have them move everything over ASAP.
In other news… that kinda relates…
I’ve been hired to do a e-commerce site for LazerTone. A guy from church owns his own toner and ink service… mostly selling remanufactured toner, but he wants to start a consumer retail site, and not just sell to businesses. So I said I’m up for the task… and it’s definately going to be a huge project. I figured at first that it should be pretty simple… I just about have the new store for my uncle’s site done… and I could just switch it over… but no.
I first am having to figure out how to use PayPal’s Website Payments Pro… to accept credit cards directly on the site. I think I have it mostly figured out… but I can’t test it until I have a domain name with SSL (https), and I’m not signing up for that until I have everything moved over to the new server.
Apparently, it’s no easy task if you want to ship your things via FedEx through a custom application. There’s a whole huge certification process you have to go through… then you create the application… and then go through another certification process before you can have you site go live. You have to talk them through it on the phone, and then mail them the printed tests you did so they can verify that everything’s ok. It makes sense… but what a pain.
The biggest part, and what I won’t have ready on time is accounting for all the possible exceptions. What if someone buys something, and then cancels the order? Or you ship it to them and they cancel? Or they get shipped the wrong stuff? Or you only have 4 out of 5 of the things they ordered in stock?
I have to make a way for that to be tracked and recorded and fixed. Should be fun though… and by the end I’ll have a really nice product to sell to other people also.