Brainache Posted November 2, 2016 Share Posted November 2, 2016 Hello I have just enabled load-balancing for my site in order to solve an earlier problem. I was told that this could be problematic for visitor sessions and that ....'To get around this, you can store session information in an SQL database and then link it to the visitor by setting a cookie.' Now I'm not quite sure what this means or how complicated it is so I will read up about it and hope I can understand it. Before I do that though I wanted to ask what the existing 'sessions' section is in admin and if using some settings here would easily solve the dilemma. I have looked at it but am none the wiser. I am an almost total novice with this but have come a good way so far with the help of the people on here, so hoping to get the answer I need. I assume that if I somehow removed the obligation for customers to create an account and log in, that would also solve the problem? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPhil Posted November 2, 2016 Share Posted November 2, 2016 Frankly, if you're doing stuff like load balancing, a prerequisite for that is being quite experienced in running a website. You, or some delegate, really has to know what they're doing. It sounds like your host has no idea how to support osCommerce, and is leaving it up to you, an admitted novice. By the way, why the load balancing? Who advised you to do that? That's something that shouldn't have to be done until it's a really big site -- what problem was this supposed to cure? Even fairly large sites run successfully on shared servers, so I'm a bit suspicious about the quality of your host. I haven't looked at it lately, but I recall that you can manage sessions in either the database or via a cookie. A cookie is needed anyway to tie one page to another while browsing (maintain a single session). A session is also needed to maintain a shopping cart, so simply not allowing customer sign-in won't help you at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brainache Posted November 2, 2016 Author Share Posted November 2, 2016 Thanks Phil. Yes I realise now that not allowing sign-in was an oversight on my part. I did the load-balancing as a sneaky way to upgrade my server for nothing because the old server didn't support tls version 1.2 which was why (I believe) my paypal transactions weren't working properly. They are now. I know I'm taking on more than i know about but shopping for another web host package was getting me down so I'm trying to find a way to do what I want with my current hosting package. If I find I can't do it I'll have to bite the bullet and go shopping. Just hoping there would be some advice on here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♥John W Posted November 2, 2016 Share Posted November 2, 2016 @@Brainache Are you on a dedicated server? Do you rknow your sever details? I'm not really a dog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brainache Posted November 3, 2016 Author Share Posted November 3, 2016 Hello It's a shared server,I assume. I have server IP address and have installed oscommerce using the details I have. It works. I don't quite know what details you mean or if you want me to post them on here. It's a Fasthosts server (UK based). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♥John W Posted November 3, 2016 Share Posted November 3, 2016 Why not go to a dedicated server or VPS if your site is so busy? I'm not really a dog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPhil Posted November 3, 2016 Share Posted November 3, 2016 The problem apparently was not that his server was overloaded and in need of upgrade for capacity, but that he had a bad host who wouldn't upgrade to the current TLS. Rather than trying to fool around with load balancing on multiple servers, the OP should just find a better host, if they can't persuade them to bring their shared servers up to snuff. I can't believe that the OP would be charged the same for the multiple servers as they would for a single shared server site, so that would also save them money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♥John W Posted November 3, 2016 Share Posted November 3, 2016 There are definitely some crappy hosts out there and people don't realize the biggest losses are lost sales. I'm not really a dog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brainache Posted November 4, 2016 Author Share Posted November 4, 2016 I've spent a lot of time today trying to persuade my host to upgrade my site to a better server. No dice. I have been a paying customer for ten years or so. I won't go into the details of my wasted efforts. That's FASTHOSTS (UK) folks. Long may they prosper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♥John W Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 If you're looking for a UK host, maybe ask Burt who he uses or some of the other UK guys here like Steve. They're both active on the forum. I have a dedicated server which is a lot more work, but i've learned a lot. I'm not really a dog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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