Noobie Setup questions:

[onlineguidefinder]

Re: Noobie Setup questions:

Try Firefox and see if you can get past the initial login. It may be a store setting somewhere (check Domain Settings) or a cookie issue in IE or some other obscure config setting you may need to correct.

Say.. did you try running diag.mvc or diag5.mvc, to make sure your MivaVM is set up properly and all tests pass 100%?

OK... disregard pm...

I uploaded diag5.mvc to my html directory and ran the tests.. all passed. Also Firefox also returned an error "incorrect or unexpected message error code -12263"

Any other ideas?

[dbrugge]

Re: Noobie Setup questions:

If I may chime in.

I signed up for a two year contract with Westhost without having any prior experience with them. I have found (and other posts throughtout this forum will support me) their service of Miva to be lackluster at best.

Foolishly, I felt that I would ride out my contract before switching service providers. This was penny wise and pound foolish. Having strong support can mean HOURS and HOURS saved in frustration and often prevent DAYS of downtime.

If at any time you feel that Westhosting is not providing you with adequate support, look for another host.

[onlineguidefinder]

Re: Noobie Setup questions:

If I may chime in.

I signed up for a two year contract with Westhost without having any prior experience with them. I have found (and other posts throughtout this forum will support me) their service of Miva to be lackluster at best.

Foolishly, I felt that I would ride out my contract before switching service providers. This was penny wise and pound foolish. Having strong support can mean HOURS and HOURS saved in frustration and often prevent DAYS of downtime.

If at any time you feel that Westhosting is not providing you with adequate support, look for another host.

Thank you for your comments... that is sound advice. I am only going 1 year at a time, so if a host change is necessary, it won't even be too penny foolish...

I believe that once I get into the admin area of Miva, I'll be home free with support through this site or others... but I cannot do anything until I can log in...

In all honesty and fairness, I have been treated very good with Westhost, but this is my first exposure to Miva and any particular need for support in that regard.

So, if I may ask, what are your recommendations for alternative hosts? I do see the dotCOM host as posted earlier on this thread and definitely appreciated their suggestions...

Thanks

[d_host]

Re: Noobie Setup questions:

My sugestion? Never sign up for any 1-year or 2-year contracts. That's just crazy - especially if you don't know the host or have any experience with them. I can see how one would perhaps try to sign up for a 1-2 year contract after being with a host for a while, once they get to know them and know what to expect, but to do it without any prior experience is probably not the best or smartest thing to do. Hence the reason we don't even offer any long term contracts at time of signup - everything is month to month. We don't believe in locking clients into 2 year contracts - if they don't want to be with us, we won't keep them - and month-to-month contract is the only way to do it. On the flip side, our client retention ratio is very close to 100% (98.7% last time we run a report), so that's probably a good indication that clients do stick with us once they sign up. But, then again, Miva Merchant is what we do, unlike Westhost and so many other hosting companies who "offer" Miva Merchant, but don't know how to run it and don't support it in any way.