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Frontpage hangs logging in

by Lloyd Buchinski
5 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
First I don't use FP for my own sites and don't have a lot of experience with it. Thought I'd check here because a few people have mentioned using FP. I do some volunteer work updating quite a large site for a nonprofit organization. The site was built with FP and they do want to upgrade to Expression Web but that is going to take a lot of work and time.

It does look really good, better than anything I have ever put together.

After having no problems at all for months of updates, FP suddenly started to hang at logging in and would never complete the process. I had FP installed on 2 computers, one running Vista and one with XP, and it did basically the same thing on both.

I eventually reinstalled Vista and FP on one machine, spent a couple of days getting everything updated and going again, and still had basically the same problem.

I did get in a single time but FP said I had no permission to change the site and gave me a read only copy of the index page and its code, with no option to object. The site is a secure site, but not https. (so not even sure what that means) It doesn't seem to be a problem with the site because someone in another city is able to work on it with FP, without problems.

In case it helps, here are some of the tedious details.

I start off clicking on view, then remote web site, then on remote web
site properties, and get this box.

"Remote Web Site Properties
Remote Web Site (tab)
Remote web server type (has 4 boxes, first one checked by default)
1. FrontPage or sharepoint services. The remote server supports
FrontPage Server Extensions or sharepoint services.
2 WebDAV The remote server supports distributed Authoring and versioning.
3 FTP The remote server supports file transfer protocol.
4 File system Use a folder on your computer or on a network as the
remote web site."

The first one is selected by default and when I type in
http://www.xxxxxxxxxxx.ca and click ok, I get the log in box. Fill
that in and click ok. It reappears saying "connecting to xxx.ca" but
nothing happens, just the endless spinning circle. Have tried a lot of things, it just keeps reappearing. When I finally close it, I get the message:

"Unable to open 'http://xxxxxxxxxxxxx.ca'. Possible causes:
1. The web server may not have the FrontPage server extensions installed.
2. The web server may be temporarily out of service.
3. If you are connecting through a proxy server, the proxy settings
may be incorrect.
4. An error may have occurred in the web server."

None of those 'possible causes' seem to be true. Any other ideas about what might be happening?

best wishes,
../lloyd
#frontpage #hangs #logging
  • Profile picture of the author redfc
    I'm not sure about FP and this might be off topic but my experience had it, its better to learn and develop your site in php, html. Consider dreamweaver for site development and comes to web hosting, use linux host - it is far most stable and faster in performance.

    Most of the site I been to that run on windows server are rather slow in performance.
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  • Profile picture of the author Aronya
    Lloyd,
    One idea that pops into my head when I read your post is that FP did an update that somehow screwed up things. If that's a possibility, see if you can roll it back & then turn off the automatic updates.

    Sounds like your method is to make changes to the online files (not a good idea, IMHO), rather than changing files on your computer & then uploading. Do you have access to the site's cpanel? If so, log in & look for the option to turn FP extensions on & off. If off, turn them on. If on, turn them off, then back on.

    Also, if you can log in (and you should), you could transfer files to your computer and work on them there, then upload via FTP or cpanel. It's a little more cumbersome than the method you've been using, but safer.

    HTH
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    • Profile picture of the author Lloyd Buchinski
      Originally Posted by redfc View Post

      Consider dreamweaver for site development and comes to web hosting, use linux host - it is far most stable and faster in performance.
      First this is mostly negative and I'm not trying to be nasty. Personally I really do prefer if people let me know if they don't like something I say. They might be right, if I have egg on my face I would like to know, and a lot of positive can come out of communication like that, as long as it doesn't get to be arguing or shouting.

      This isn't my site and I don't have a choice about using Frontpage on it. It is not possible to use Dreamweaver, but I do believe I said enough in the original post to indicate that. For my own sites, I use Notepad++ mostly, a bit of Netbeans and am just trying out PS Pad.

      DW has serious problems. It is usually highly recommended around here but did you know it cannot save pages to UTF-8 without a few work arounds? (One guy does it by saving a Japanese character in his commented out code.) Here is a thread about that. utf-8/ansi pain in the neck : Web Design and Content : Web Hosting Talk

      For the Windows sites being slower I'm a bit suspicious. Here is a forum thread where Warriors with a lot of experience with both types of servers say that is not true. http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...r-website.html There are quite a few comments that Linux is better, but without anything offered to back it up.

      It is a bit fashionable to slam windows these days, but I always want to know how the details of the situation relate to something like that.

      Basically it seems that both types of servers have strengths and weaknesses, and it depends on just what you want to do. At any rate this is not my site as I mentioned and I do not have the choice of changing the hosting.

      I really hope I am not being obnoxious, am certainly not trying to be. Thanks for the comment and who knows maybe something good will come from it yet. Even just the thinking it causes might lead to a solution. Communication is really valuable when trying to get something done.

      Originally Posted by Aronya View Post

      Lloyd,
      One idea that pops into my head when I read your post is that FP did an update that somehow screwed up things. If that's a possibility, see if you can roll it back & then turn off the automatic updates.
      I suppose that is possible and will think about it, maybe I could check by reinstalling FP, not doing any updates, and then trying to log in. I have done enough things like this already it might be one more I could try. I have started checking my updates info and it is a bit slow and difficult. But that is certainly a possibility, and I will look carefully at it. It is just about the only thing I have left to try right now. Thanks for the suggestion.

      Originally Posted by Aronya View Post

      Do you have access to the site's cpanel? If so, log in & look for the option to turn FP extensions on & off. If off, turn them on. If on, turn them off, then back on.
      I don't have access but know someone who does, and might pass this on to her. I do think that could possibly be enough to do it but of course I have read plenty about them being fragile (using ftp will wreck them! at least according to a couple of comments I've read lately) and maybe any messing around with them at all is taking a chance.

      Originally Posted by Aronya View Post

      Also, if you can log in (and you should), you could transfer files to your computer and work on them there, then upload via FTP or cpanel. It's a little more cumbersome than the method you've been using, but safer.
      Can't log in, (sigh). The method we use is cumbersome enough, saving the page with a different name, doing the testing and then renaming it. On my own sites I do any minor changes right in the control panel. DirectAdmin has a really nice preview html feature that lets you test any page completely in the preview pane before it is saved. I do have recent backups on the desktop at all times and if something does go seriously wrong I can upload a replacement page in less than a minute probably.
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      Do something spectacular; be fulfilled. Then you can be your own hero. Prem Rawat

      The KimW WSO

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      • Profile picture of the author hypnoman
        Lloyd,

        I've experienced this problem many times.

        I recently migrated my design front-end from Frontpage to Expression Web 3 - it was almost seemless - a case of opening the web respository - in fact most things are similar if you are familiar with FP.

        As for your issues, my intuit guess is that as others are able to edit using FP then, as the error message indicates the FP extensions may not be installed on the web server. Have you verified this? Can you connect using the password credentials by changing to ftp in FP instead of the first option? You don't require FP extensions unless you are using some of the FP specific form features etc.

        If you can login using another ftp client then your credentials are OK - then try ftp within FP.

        Another thought is that if there is a .htaccess file on the web server then it may restrict who has update access. Have you looked at the .htaccess file?

        Also, I can't remember if FP has this feature, but within Expression Web 3, you can edit the website directly - you might want to try this (yet again to verify password details)

        Let me know how you get on. I use Expression Web nearly every day, so feel free to hollow for help.

        hypnoman
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        • Profile picture of the author Lloyd Buchinski
          Originally Posted by hypnoman View Post

          Let me know how you get on. I use Expression Web nearly every day, so feel free to hollow for help.
          Thanks for the offer and the comments.

          Yes the site does have FP extensions. I at least did have access to the site and did about 50 weekly updates before this little problem started. Still haven't got anywhere with it but still trying something occasionally.

          While I was googling for info, a comment I saw a few times from info on the pages of hosting providers, is that using ftp can break FP extensions, so have been reluctant to try something with ftp.

          Really would like to move up to EW, but unfortunately it isn't up to me. I was surprised to read that you can use it as a php editor (!) (version 3) and import layers from Photoshop without opening PS.

          For myself I still prefer to not use wysiwyg editors, but out of them, Expression is sounding more interesting all the time. Would really be happy to use it on this job.

          ../lloyd
          Signature

          Do something spectacular; be fulfilled. Then you can be your own hero. Prem Rawat

          The KimW WSO

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