Unable to connect to host Error

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by partners, Jul 8, 2008.

  1. partners

    partners New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 5, 2007
    Messages:
    2
    Hi,

    Our host recently installed a firewall on our dedicated server after it was hacked into. We are receiving errors now on our recurring payments and nobody can join our site. Below are the errors. Curl is installed & port 1139 for Linkpoint is open.

    Cron error from our recurring payments:
    Alert!: Unable to connect to remote host.
    lynx: Can't access startfile

    From our aMember cpanel error log on all payments:
    Could not execute curl: couldn't connect to host

    From curl test:
    Returned error: couldn't connect to host
    Returned 0 bytes

    Does anyone know anything about these errors or what "host" it is trying to connect to? We submitted an urgent support ticket on 7/4/08 but have had no reply.

    Please help if you can!


    Thanks,
    Charles & Susan Truett
    partners, Jul 8, 2008
    #1
  2. skippybosco

    skippybosco CGI-Central Partner Staff Member

    Joined:
    Aug 22, 2006
    Messages:
    2,526
    Charles,

    What payment provider are you using? PayPal? Authorize.net? I would start there.. can you connect (SSH or other) from your server?
    skippybosco, Jul 9, 2008
    #2
  3. partners

    partners New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 5, 2007
    Messages:
    2
    Hi,

    We are using Linkpoint and yes, can connect through SSH.

    Thanks,
    Charles & Susan Truett
    partners, Jul 9, 2008
    #3
  4. skippybosco

    skippybosco CGI-Central Partner Staff Member

    Joined:
    Aug 22, 2006
    Messages:
    2,526
    If you have not already, open a ticket with Amember support to assist.
    skippybosco, Jul 9, 2008
    #4
  5. getresults

    getresults Member

    Joined:
    Nov 1, 2006
    Messages:
    87
    Looks to me like your firewall may be getting in the way and preventing the cron update working.

    Do you have ssh?

    If so, try executing the cron command set up in your control panel on the ssh command line and see what the error is.

    The host it will be trying to access will be your amember site. I'm guessing that it's trying to run www.yoursite.com/cron.php and that's either being blocked by the firewall or the permissions on certain binary files on your server have been upgraded so that web server user can't execute curl, links, lynx, wget etc.

    Drop me a line if you'd like to discuss this further - phill at getresults.co.nz

    Who are you hosted with by the way?

    Do you know how your server was compromised? Brute force password attack?

    If it was your root account that was hacked then the only way to be really safe is to have your server reinstalled from scratch to ensure there are no trojan binaries etc. :(
    getresults, Jul 11, 2008
    #5
  6. ianking

    ianking New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 4, 2011
    Messages:
    1
    Could not execute curl: couldn't connect to host

    Charles & Susan Truett - did you get your issue resolved? i am having same error and wondering if you could share any suggestions

    thanks

    ian
    ianking, Jul 21, 2011
    #6
  7. thehpmc

    thehpmc Member

    Joined:
    Aug 24, 2006
    Messages:
    901
    Don't know what happened to Charles & Susan Truett but looking at the dates they haven't posted for neigh on 3 years!!
    thehpmc, Jul 21, 2011
    #7

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