All of a sudden I cannot get into my web site

Question

Hello

I have the original Expressions Web and have been using it successfully since I installed it. All of a sudden, I am not able to access my web host to do updates on my site using expressions web.

When I try to open the web, instead of getting the sign on screen, I get a 'remote site editing option' window. This gives the option of editing the live web or editing and then publishing later. 

I have always edited live. 

When I select edit live, I get an error message window that says unable to open web site and then lists four reasons:

1. No Front Page extentions

2. Server out of service

3. If using a proxy, Proxy settings incorrect 

4. An error occured in the web server.

I contacted my web host have have verified that it is not 1,2 or 4. I do not know what 3 means. Obviously something has gone awry with my WE software, but I have not a clue as to how to fix it. 

Any assistance is more than welcome. I would even be pleased to talk with someone who can help over the phone. 

Answer 1

No, it is not "Obviously something has gone awry with my WE software..." The odds are 99.99999% against it.

Four prime areas come to mind:

A. It is almost surely related to #1 or #4 in the above list.

B. The FPSEs may be corrupted on the server (but not missing) and need to be reinstalled. That is the absolute prime suspect.

C. They were wrong and a server upgrade screwed you permanently.

D. Or possibly a Windows update (you didn't say what OS you are running) that changed a security or firewall setting that keeps you from hooking in to the server on the right port.

Here's the deal. FPSEs haven't been supported by MS for a very long time, and they will not run on the new server OSes (since Windows Server 2008 R2) that have been available for 4 years. Time and again, people come in here with a tale of woe that their server company has upgraded the servers unannounced and they can't use FPSEs any more and can't edit their site (possibility #4). Whether that's the cause right now is immaterial. It will be the cause soon; you are running on very borrowed time.

Log on to your server control panel and see if you can reinstall the FPSEs. Or call the server folks again and have them check it again. I bet it ain't EW; it never is when something like this happens.

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It's not the heat, it's the stupidity.

Answer 2

Thank you for the info, Bill. I have gone to the control panel and reinstalled the FP extensions. I am running Vista.

Do you think I should uninstall and reinstall the FP extensions? Perhaps remove the firewall from Windows and see what happens?

I will ask the web host if they have upgraded to a new server OS when they open up again tomorrow.

Answer 3

Well, turned off the firewall and that did no good. 

Scott

Answer 4

Well, if you have FPSEs on the server control panel, then they haven't upgraded the OS to a version that won't run them (Unless they are very sloppy and left stuff on an old server, but that's not what usually happens. Usually it's a new server with the new OS.).

Keep in mind--we have no tech support resources. We're just users. Nobody here has anything to fall back on except their own experience and whatever you can also find by googling.

If you get any error messages, google the exact message.

Don't remove the firewall, just turn it off. You're going to have to do your own experimenting with this. Your computer is different than those of other people.

Your best course of action: Right this minute--try to get FTP working, and publish the entire site down to your hard drive (use the Publish function to get everything). Then make 2 backups--one on CD/DVD that can't be overwritten, and get used to working locally and publishing via FTP. Screw FPSEs before they screw you.

Look in the top thread of this forum for resources for people switching from FP to EW.

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It's not the heat, it's the stupidity.

Answer 5

Scott, FWIW, I agree with Bill. If you think about it, unless you did something overt to change your local settings in EW, the only reason that you would suddenly have trouble connecting the way you always have before, successfully, is if something changed at the server end.

You're using the original Expression Web Designer, which is two versions before the rewrite and switch to heavy WPF and dotNET dependency beginning with EW3, and there have been no updates to EW1 for many years, so it is not reasonable to presume that anything might have been pushed down in a Windows update without your knowledge.

Therefore, the odds are very good that something has changed at your server, or in your OS, and you will find your solution investigating those, rather than EW.

FWIW, editing live is a very, very bad idea. You will find 100% agreement on that subject from those who contribute here. Editing live means that you have no local backup if anything happens at the server, and if you make any egregious errors, it's up there for the world to see until you notice it and correct it.

Furthermore, we regularly have people come here in a panic, frantic because their providers are dropping the FPSE. As providers upgrade to new hardware and server OSes, they may find that the FPSE are no longer supported, or their last tech that knows anything about them leaves, or whatever, and they ditch them.

Your best bet is to change your practices now, while you have the choice, and time, and switch to FTP. Publish the site down to your local machine, do your editing there, test your changes before publishing them, then publish them back up to the server.

cheers,
scott

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Answer 6

Thank you both for your inputs to this. I locally back up every file I put into the web host so at least I have what I need in case something happens. I like the idea of publishing the extant site to a hard drive in case I missed something and will look to see if the cpanel allows that. With 4 gig of data via a rather slow DSL it would probably take a couple of days!

Would it be wise to get Expression Web 4 or is that just asking for more of the same? 

Again, I do thank you for the input. I just wish I was a lot more knowledgeable about all this but at 67, I have not spent a lot of time with software!

Cheers,

Scott

Answer 7

Don't use CPanel. EW has the publishing function built right in it (in the File menu, Publish Site...). That is the only way to ensure that you get everything (and FTP is lots faster than using the server's file management tool).

EW 4 is head and shoulders better that EW1, BUT--if you use shared borders for navigation, it will trash them. Do not open a site with shared borders in EW4 without removing them in FP (or maybe EW1) first! Read the links in the Forum FAQ for information for people who are in exactly your position.

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It's not the heat, it's the stupidity.

Answer 8

Thank you both for your inputs to this. I locally back up every file I put into the web host so at least I have what I need in case something happens. I like the idea of publishing the extant site to a hard drive in case I missed something and will look to see if the cpanel allows that. With 4 gig of data via a rather slow DSL it would probably take a couple of days!

Four gigs! Really? Whatever would create such a mass of data?

Anyway, here's the procedure you would use to publish your site down using EW:

Open EW:

Create a new site using "Site - New Site - Empty Site" using whatever name you want.

Use "Site - Publishing" and then click 'Add a publishing destination'

Enter the FTP connection details you already have for the live site

The FTP dialog will then open, with the live site open in the right hand window, and the empty new site in the left hand window.

Select everything in the right hand window and then click the right-to-left arrow in the central bar. This will transfer the remote site to the new local site. (Addendum: If you really have a ton of data, you can select sections of the remote site at a time to transfer in each session, until you get it all transferred down.)

You can then work on the local site, test your changes by previewing them, and then publish the changes back to the live site by publishing in the same way from the local to remote site.

Would it be wise to get Expression Web 4 or is that just asking for more of the same? 

I would say go for it. EW4 is significantly farther advanced than earlier versions, is much more capable and fully featured, and most importantly, with EW4 they finally got publishing and site management right. And, since you're eligible for the upgrade price, you get EW4, Expression Design 4 (a reasonably competent vector/raster graphics editor), and Expression Encoder 4 (screen capture and video encoder), all for just $79.

Again, I do thank you for the input. I just wish I was a lot more knowledgeable about all this but at 67, I have not spent a lot of time with software!

Right. Well, don't expect your age to make much difference around here. Several of us here are in your age range or older. Age has absolutely nothing to do with anything. I am retired myself (well... semi-retired—I still take clients if I feel that they won't be a pain in the ass to work with). Your willingness to learn, to adapt to new methods and technologies, is what will govern your success, not your age.

cheers,
scott

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Please remember to "Mark as Answer" the responses that resolved your issue. It is common courtesy to recognize those who have helped you, and it also makes it easier for visitors to find the resolution later.