Windows 2003 Perl/CGI Issues

[GEM555]

How in the World...
...can someone get this thing to run?

Got IIS with Windows 2003 SBS. Perl 5.10. Created a web site that will not load or run the .CGI scripting, even though Perl is an allowed extension. WEB site properties are set correctly, I believe. No amount of fiddling with the .CGI scripting path for Perl changes the results.

Any thoughts?

Thanks


edit by Sparky:  Please use descriptive topic/thread titles.  Thanks.

Edit by Sparky:  Problem was with user's Windows IIS settings all along.  Server was not properly configured to see or run CGI scripts...  Topic Locked.

[phrea84]

email me and ill help.

jah@billposs.com

[Sparky]

email me and ill help.

jah@billposs.com

That's a generous offer.


Whatever the final outcome, if the OP could post the solution in this thread, it would be greatly appreciated.   

[GEM555]

Thanks. I've forwarded my eMail.

[GEM555]

Well, still no joy. The product just doesn't work and I don't think it's gonna. "Page not found" no matter how much messing around one does. Maybe it's still expermential? Beta? Alpha?

Anyway, thanks to phrea84 for his assist! It did look promising for a while.

This leaves us still looking for a Trouble Ticket package. Does anyone have any recommendations of where to find a good one? Links?

Thanks in advance. And please let us know when this one gets finished!

GEM555

[Sparky]

Well, still no joy. The product just doesn't work and I don't think it's gonna. "Page not found" no matter how much messing around one does.

"Page not found" errors?

Did you see item 3.1 on this page... http://www.troubleticketexpress.com/trouble-ticket-setup.html

"3.1. Saw Page Not Found 404 Error
That means you either made a mistake typing the url or the scripts directory must be accessed via another URL - please refer to your web server documentation to find out how URLs map to file system directories on your server."

I never get that error but then again my server is correctly mapping URLs and finding all the scripts.

Maybe it's still expermential? Beta? Alpha?

  TTX is written very solidly and hardly experimental.

Just because you couldn't get your server properly configured doesn't have much anything at all to do with TTX.  If you can't even get your server to find the TTX setup program, then you'll see the 404 error.  TTX does not generate 404 (page not found) errors, your server does.

More info about 404 Errors in IIS

Anyway, thanks to phrea84 for his assist! It did look promising for a while.

Yes, my personal thanks to Phrea84 for stepping up and helping you with this.

This leaves us still looking for a Trouble Ticket package. Does anyone have any recommendations of where to find a good one? Links?

Yes, TTX.      The vast majority of users here quickly find a solution to their problem and are quite happy with it.

And please let us know when this one gets finished!

According to Alex, 350 people per week download TTX and this discussion forum gets maybe one per month regarding installation and setup issues related to server configuration.  Nearly all of those servers are running a version of Windows.

I'm sorry it doesn't work for you but you shouldn't be so quick to knock a free product with free support when you still haven't even found the root cause of your URL mapping issue.

I strongly recommend that you send the TTX programmer, Alex, a ticket.  Even his tech support is free so perhaps he can solve the problem and respond to your other comments directly.

http://ttx.helpdeskconnect.com/?cmd=addticket

[GEM555]

"Page not found" errors?

Did you see item 3.1 on this page... http://www.troubleticketexpress.com/trouble-ticket-setup.html

"3.1. Saw Page Not Found 404 Error
That means you either made a mistake typing the url or the scripts directory must be accessed via another URL - please refer to your web server documentation to find out how URLs map to file system directories on your server."

We checked that. I had a guy that works for our ISP come over this evening and look things over. Our other two sites hosted on this IIS server work fine. He couldn't figure it out either.

Maybe the product isn't for Windows?

[GEM555]

>I'm sorry it doesn't work for you but you shouldn't be so quick to knock a free product with free support when you still haven't even found the root cause of your URL mapping issue.<

I don't mean to knock it - I know it's freeware. That's why we felt we could invest the 5+ hours working with it. But as my boss said "Anything that takes this long just to install probably isn't written for professional use". What he sees is that the other two sites on our server work just fine - even sharepoint works!

Anyway - I'm on my own time now and open to suggestions.

[Sparky]

"Page Not Found" is simple.  It just means that your server can't find the page you're requesting.

If I put "TEST.CGI" in the "ABC" directory and then go here....

myserver.com/ABC/TEST.cgi

... and then get a 404 page not found error, my problem is NOT the script....

The server can't find what I'm calling up. =>  404 Error.

You are going to have this problem with every single CGI script until you figure this out.

[GEM555]

Yes, but not if you click on "browse" directly from IIS.

If I go into IIS, click on "Web Sites", highligh the site in question and click on "Browse", the site should open. Our other two sites work just that way. Click on "Browse" and they open just fine. You can even do this with RWW or OWA. That's how IIS works.

I get "this program cannot display the webpage" when I try it on TTX. This is all we have been getting all day.

[Sparky]

Again, did you send Alex a trouble ticket?  He knows far more about Windows IIS configurations than I do.

[Sparky]

For the readers' benefit:

In another thread the O.P was insisting that the problem couldn't be with his server since the Perl test program (test.pl) was operating properly.

As per Alex...

Looks like your IIS server is not configured to recognize the *.cgi as CGI Perl scripts.  How to check: rename the test.pl to test.cgi.
...
But if the *.cgi extension is an issue, the best way would be to ask the "IIS guy from your ISP" to allow *.cgi extension.

[Sparky]

According to a message I received, phrea84 was able to finally get this all working for GEM555.

Anything phrea84 or GEM555 can now add to this thread regarding details of the solution would be useful for other people who may come here with the same problem.

A big thank-you again to phrea84 for donating time and helping out.

[phrea84]

happy to help.

[Sparky]

Since we haven't heard anything yet from the OP regarding resolution, I was wondering if you could briefly share the details here of what you did to get him fixed up.

Thank-you.