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Strange problems with Amazon S3 URLs expiring

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Tips and Tricks HQ Support Portal › Forums › WP eStore Forum › Strange problems with Amazon S3 URLs expiring

Tagged: amazon s3

  • This topic has 31 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 1 month ago by mga.
Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 32 total)
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  • Author
    Posts
  • March 16, 2015 at 5:21 pm #12362
    mga
    Member

    I am getting some people saying they get a “access denied” message when I use a fresh download link for them. I use Amazon S3 with the “as3tp” protocol. The strange thing is that it works for me.

    The most recent person is using an iMac just like myself, has no additional software blocking access, and still he gets this message every time.

    These people think I am to blame for this error, yet it works every time for me.

    Help!

    Example error message:

    <Error>
    <Code>AccessDenied</Code><Message>Request has expired</Message>
    <Expires>2015-03-16T15:13:04Z</Expires>
    <ServerTime>2015-03-16T17:09:55Z</ServerTime>
    <RequestId>3F86DFF239D4831D</RequestId>
    <HostId>qSUempGWWoL55bp539WAyxrixwAdpYbIJyr3gdVGi5fi65vGNv0V1AqSwi+W06c3</HostId>
    </Error>

    March 16, 2015 at 6:49 pm #69138
    wzp
    Moderator

    What value do you have for:

    WP eStore –> Settings –> Addon Settings –> AWS S3 Presigned URL Expiry

    If the value is less than 300 seconds (5 minutes), you run the risk of time synchronization errors between the clock on your server and the one at Amazon.

    March 16, 2015 at 7:24 pm #69139
    mga
    Member

    I have it set to 300. Should I set it higher?

    March 16, 2015 at 7:53 pm #69140
    wzp
    Moderator

    Set it to 600, just to be safe. What was it before the problems began?

    March 16, 2015 at 8:34 pm #69141
    mga
    Member

    I have never changed it, but the problems have been on and off since the beginning. It seems like a small percentage of all my customers get the access denied message.

    I’ll set it to 600 and see what happens.

    March 16, 2015 at 9:19 pm #69142
    wzp
    Moderator

    It would be interesting if you were able to quantify that as a percentage; both with the 300 and the 600 second setting. The fact that a majority of users are unaffected means that we’re dealing with gremlins that are not particular to your site.

    March 17, 2015 at 4:15 pm #69143
    mga
    Member

    Yeah, but I don’t have any means to track the problems that way. Hopefully it works better now with the settings changed. I’ll reply back here later some time with my impressions when enough orders have come through.

    March 17, 2015 at 5:56 pm #69144
    wzp
    Moderator

    If the problem continues, try disabling the URL shortening feature.

    https://support.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forums/topic/estore-admin-functions-not-generating-product-links-missing-some-from-email

    There may be a Google related problem.

    *****UPDATE*****

    Please read this, for an update on the situation:

    https://support.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forums/topic/google-url-shortener-reliability?replies=1#post-71927

    March 18, 2015 at 2:19 am #69145
    mga
    Member

    The problem with the default links is that they seem to often get broken when sent via email. I’ve had several customers complain about getting this message.

    “The secure download manager ran into a problem that it couldn’t handle, and is unable to process your download request.

    The problem was due to the following reason:

    Error! The product ID value is not numeric. WP eStore’s product ID must be a numeric value. Please contact site admin.”

    Hope you can find your own url shortening tool.

    March 18, 2015 at 10:01 am #69146
    wzp
    Moderator

    Last night, the team burned the midnight oil, and eStore now uses Bitly.

    1. Update your copy of eStore:

      https://support.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forums/topic/re-install-or-load-a-fresh-build-of-the-plugins

    2. Follow these instructions:

      https://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/ecommerce/shorten-download-links-in-wp-estore-plugin-3634

    March 18, 2015 at 2:46 pm #69147
    mga
    Member

    One problem with Bitly is that it is often blacklisted, so the automatic emails sent to a customer may not be delivered.

    For example, see

    http://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx?action=blacklist%3abit.ly&run=toolpage

    It would be better if you set up such a service on a domain you own.

    March 18, 2015 at 11:33 pm #69148
    admin
    Keymaster

    Link shortening is more of a cosmetic feature. You can go through the hassle of creating a new domain and all that. Then that domain gets blocked and you are back to square 1.

    March 19, 2015 at 12:40 am #69149
    mga
    Member

    Respectfully, I think it is important that emails sent via eMember doesn’t contain links from domains that are blacklisted, because those emails can get marked as spam. Then, the customer asks where is the download, and I have to manually recreate the link.

    URL shortening is important for me, because I have noticed a large percent of my customers complain about the “no product found in database” error, which is happening due to the links sometimes break when sent via email. This is when not using a URL shortener.

    If you had link shortening on a domain you (tipsandstricks) own, it would “never” get blacklisted if you only allowed url shortening from the eMember script itself. It would be a very valuable addition to your product.

    I wrote “never” because from my understanding, the only way it could happen would be if your script got hacked in some way, so that a spammer was able to send spam from that domain.

    I can understand if you think is outside the scope of the product, but I hope you would consider it.

    If it’s not possible, is it possible to make the download links shorter? Instead of “?enc_dl_action=process&file=2fxA%2BH6WRRO91Y98uw%3D%3D” could you make this a bit shorter somehow?

    That would make it less likely to break due to email formatting.

    March 19, 2015 at 1:54 am #69150
    wzp
    Moderator

    I can understand if you think is outside the scope of the product, but I hope you would consider it.

    Running a service like that takes more than a one time payment of $39. If it was offered as a premium service, would you subscribe to it?

    March 19, 2015 at 1:58 am #69151
    mga
    Member

    Yeah I would. It would save me a lot of hassle!

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