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New version of WHMCS has been released and all users are recommended to update their installation. The following has been taken from the WHMCS

This is a maintenance release only to resolve the bugs reported and fixed so far in the first stable release of 4.1.
It consists only of changed files – no database changes – so upgrading from the immediate preceeding version 4.1.1 is simply a case of uploading the files from the incremental release zip to your installation.

• Client area ticket list prev/next links were losing search term when moving to next page of results
• Modified portal template view ticket page to list custom fields vertically rather than horizontal which was causing display issues for large fields
• Configurable Options list on invoice line item descriptions was ending early on quantity types and one time cycles
• Updated ticket submission page to preserve custom field entries if validation wasn’t passed on submit
• Update for product lists to show one time prices for one time products & services rather than 0 recurring
• Bulk domain checker was not allowing WHOIS viewing for taken domains
• PayPal & 2Checkout callbacks were not properly converting the amount received back to the invoice currency before applying payment with convert to
• Prorata calculations were doubling biennial terms and not working correctly with charge next month crossing year end
• Client area service password change comparison was not showing error if strength checking was enabled
• Quotes/Estimates Send PDF button was failing to send email to unregistered propospects
• API updates to various calls and fix for login/auth failures not being returned in XML when response type is requested
• When adding a custom addon from the admin side, the billing cycle or pricing was not saving until edit and resave
• Removed Any option from Mass Mail server combo box which served no purpose since the multi-select was added
• Orders list filter by order date was not working
• OpenSRS & ResellOne both require company names for domain reg and 4.0 update broke the passing of None for empty values
• Corrected missing translations in the product upgrade order confirmation emails
• Added login form and redirect preservation for client only download links if followed when not logged in
• Various WHOIS server updates

As usual, WHMCS users can login to their Client Areas here at Rapid Hosting and download the updated code.

On the 19th of November, the Business Grade Server GOLD will under go it’s first scheduled upgrade since it’s commission eight months ago. The upgrade will take place at 9pm EST and will give the system another 4GB of system memory, giving it a total of 8GB.

We expect the outage to be minimal between 20 and 30 minutes.

Early this morning we were alerted to a range of issues for viewing sites on the Blue server. Our initial investigation lead us to believe Blue had a failing hard-drive that was affecting the services.

Shortly after we were advised by the datacenter that the failing component (a SATA cable which connects the storage media to the server) was at fault and was promptly replaced.

Due to the nature of the issue, we issued a forced check of the RAID and data and is still in progress, thus fair with no more reported errors.

As of 12:00 noon EST Australia, our ETA for blue to be up and running 100% functional will be approximately 40 more minutes.

We understand that the outage today has been an inconvenience and would like to take a moment to apologise for the issues we’ve been experiencing. Although not required on our Blue services, Rapid Hosting is issuing all users affected one (1) free month of hosting.

To our valued customers,

Please be advised that over our 1300 number is no longer in service. This decision was made after consideration so please be sure to only call (07) 54121520 or simply use our ticketing support system.

If in the future we reactivate a 1300 we will post the information on all our communication material.

Cheers,
Darren Nolan

There have been a few reports from clients that when attempting to log into their client area an error message appears “License Validation Failed” which prevents users from logging in.

This issue is intermittent but WHMCS are aware of the issue and are releasing a patch to fix the issue (which is soon to be resolved in version V4.1.

At this stage, if you do receive the error when attempting to log in, please be patient and try again shortly after. As soon as the patch is available we will aply it to the system and ensure all our WHMCS clients with keys from us have access to this file.

From Matt of WHMCS:

The license validation errors that some people have been experiencing in V4 are down to 2 seperate issues which I’ll try to explain here.

Firstly, there’s the cron. Some users have been experiencing a “License Validation Failed” response from this. This happens only on some setups and where it does, it’s due to the $_SERVER php environment variables not making available the server IP when a file is being run as a cron and therefore it’s deemed to be an invalid location. The IP validation was introduced in V4 due to the number of people who migrate their sites to different servers and leave the old installation’s cron job running which results in duplicate emails to clients and them being issued invoices and reminders for things which don’t exist in the current install. But unfortunately it’s caused trouble for more people than it solved and so will be removed again in 4.1.

Then there’s the client login issue. This is caused either by the domain being used not being authorized in which case intentional, but can also be caused due to the local key expiring which is an error and not something that should be showing to clients. It’s not anything to do with not being able to contact our server as there’s no remote license checks client side and fail overs in place for should our server be unreachable.

In our next release we will be including modifications to avoid both of these situations occuring. However, if you are being affected by either now, then you should contact support. If you are not experiencing either problem then you do not need to apply for patches nor make any changes.

Matt

Affecting all Hosting Solutions:

Early this morning we were notified about a possible exploit in our DNS server solutions, Bind. As the issue was deemed critical by our tech team, we have applied server updates roughly around 9am addressing the exploit.

The patches applied were of low risk and we do not believe this will interrupt your service.

We will closely monitor the changes made to all the servers over the next 24 hours and request that if you have any issue with your site (creating domains, modifying or removing), please bring it to our attention as soon as possible.

The addressed issue can be found at http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/725188

Thank you.
Darren Nolan

Rapid Hosting is proud to announce that after three months of careful planning, we are ready to offer you our new Business Guaranteed Uptime hosting accounts!

The “gold” server is now up and running, and taking clients quickly.  Be sure to order now, as there are limited places available on this server.

Apart from being powered by a HUGE Dual Xeon Quad processor, located in Sydney’s Equinix datacenter – our network redundancy agreements allows us to offer you 99.9% guaranteed uptime of your website and emails! Not only does the 99.9% uptime guarantee just the network, but also the server itself! (So make sure you check with other providers first that you are getting what you think you are).

But please, spaces are limited on the new server, so make sure you act quickly and take up this great new service.

Also: For the next twenty-five product sign-ups (existing customers can migrate from any server to one of the new Business Guaranteed services – you can have not just our usual 10% new product launch discount – but 20% off the life time of that hosting account! Just use the coupon “giveme20″ when ordering to get this limited offer.  Again, it’s only for the first 25 product sign ups.

It’s important to note that the Premium Business Guaranteed Uptime hosting options are for single domains only – so give your business the next best solution in hosting and redundancy and order now.

A new patch was released yesterday which everyone is being encouraged to update to immediately as it addresses possible security vulnerabilities within the system.  The download is available from WHMCS or existing clients who have registered WHMCS through us may download here.

Excerpt from WHMCS:

WHMCS V3.8.2 Patch Released

We were notified yesterday (17/03/2009) of a vulnerability affecting the client area (and which poses no threat to admin access).

Although so far unpublished, we recommend that all customers apply this patch as soon as possible in order to prevent any issues from it being discovered. Affected versions are V3.7 & V3.8.

WHMCS is committed to delivering secure software and this proactive patch is evidence of our commitment.

The patch also contains all the bug fixes made to the V3.8 release to date. It is a changed files update only and so there is no install process or template updates necessary.

Changelog

• System SSL URL not being passed to templates when set
• Unable to delete line items/options in configurable options & quotes
• Contact form email not showing users email address when sent using SMTP
• Sorting by payment method on orders page returns an error
• Validation loses field values when creating new support ticket in the admin area
• Update for .eu WHOIS server available response change and other minor changes
• Open Ticket quick link in actions panel on client summary page not auto selecting client
• Product upgrade options listing not using the sort order defined in the product config
• Prorata billing calculations always being done based on 30 days in a month rather than actual days
• Mass Mail option to send emails only once per customer and not for every matching product
• Domain renewal reminder notices being addressed incorrectly in some circumstances
• Addons always being set to not apply tax after ordering
• Commas in support ticket urls causing auto linking to end prematurely
• Fixed bug in capture payment API function

Not more than 6 months after our last site, we’re at it again, bringing you a fresh and new look for the website! We hope you enjoy this new site, just as much as we enjoyed making it.

Using our own custom made theme and powered by WordPress, we are please to present – Our latest look!

Please make sure you leave your comments about the new site’s look and feel at the bottom of this post, we’re always happy to hear your feed-back!

Hope you’ve all had a wonderful weekend,
Kind Regards,

Darren Nolan