ionCube Loader? What, me install?

I have been installing the aMember trial version of on my server. I ftp'd the cofig.inc.php file to the server and clicked the continue link and got this message
"Site error: the file .../public_html/amember/index.php requires the ionCube PHP Loader ioncube_loader_lin_5.1.so to be installed by the site administrator."

To run this membership system requires that I install ioncube software on my server? There are a lot of negative opinions about ioncube. I need a good membership management system but, if I have to start mucking with my server and installing questionable software. Then I'm afraid it's a deal breaker for me.

I've never had any trouble with Ioncube loaders, and installing one is as simple as uploading the file to your hosting account.

What's the big deal?

Opinions are like *&&holes. Everybody has one.

Thanks but...

powerkeys thanks for your response but... I'm a rank amateur with server configurations, php, apache and stuff. I don't know what I'm doing and I am very timid about putting software on the server which may mess things up for someone else. I read that php 5.6 no longer supports ionCube loader. That, to me is an intimidating statement. Seemed like a fact not an opinion.

In terms of installing it... who me? Install what? Where? When? How? I have php 5.1.6 on an apache server. Are you saying it's as easy as taking the file called "ioncube_loader_lin_5.1.so" from the amember/ioncube folder and ftp it to the root level of my site? And then it should work?

I'm very intimidated by server stuff I know nothing about. I break out in a cold sweat.

I am like you -- I get nervous touching my server. I ask my Webhost or aMember staff to help.

No worry, we'll be here to help you. It's possible that your webhost didn't upgrade the PHP. Ask your webhost if they can upgrade now.

Dave

Yes. Just upload the ioncube folder and whichever version you need for your server inside that. It may work on the root level of your site, but I've never done it that way. You can always try it and see what happens.

As far as not knowing much about these things, when I first started using aMember, I uploaded the WHOLE ioncube folder with ALL the loader files. It didn't hurt anything, although it took up a lot more space than it needed.

And Alex may recall my panic that aMember used CSS. At that time, I was still using Frontpage and <font> definitions on my pages, and none of them worked with the aMember CSS templates. My solution was to delete all CSS from the templates.

And to be honest, even now, I leave all the server administration stuff to the people I have my VPS hosted with. If I need something installed, I usually ask them to do it for me, although I'm starting to get comfortable with CPanel's WHM and the EasyApache interface to rebuild Apache with the needed modules, one of which is the Ioncube loader.

After being online for almost 7 years, Alex and his staff have proven to be some of the BEST people I've run into, and I fully trust whatever they recommend. They wouldn't use Ioncube unless it was safe.

Well this is what I was afraid of. My host installed ionCube loader and now other php files on the sites on the server will not function. Now, I've got real headaches!

They must have installed it incorrectly.