Troubleshooting

It would be unreasonable to expect any online system to run flawlessly month after month, and your "Get Paid To" site is no exception. You should not encounter any major problems, unless you have been careless with your site key, account number, Admin password or MySQL backups, and most glitches are fixable at the server end of things.

The following list outlines the most common problems you are likely to encounter while using the Cash Crusader script, or a Go-Mama hosting package. You should go through it carefully before contacting Technical Support staff at either Scripts-R-Us, or Go-Mama Hosting; if all else fails, both technical teams will answer your queries promptly with suggestions as to what may be wrong, and how it can be fixed, either at your end or via tweaks to the system at their end.

If you have a problem that is not mentioned here, DO NOT edit the files in the scripts folder, or the entire site may fail to work at all - e-mail the technical experts and leave it in their hands, it is their job after all, and you have paid for the ongoing support. You can also check out the queries posted to the Cash Crusader Forum at:

http://cashcrusader.info/forum/index.php

For Site Owners:

The site will not show up, and only the following message appears: "MySQL database is currently offline. Please try again later"

This happens when the MySQL database receives more queries than it can comfortably handle (usually at peak times) and is nothing to worry about - the site sometimes comes back online a couple of minutes later. The message has the effect of taking some of the load off the database (some visitors go away and return later), so normal service can be resumed.

If in addition the site images are missing, the text looks "unformatted", and you are unable to get into Admin, this is generally a symptom of complete MySQL shutdown, which may be an indicator of a more serious problem, e.g. your hosting package needs to be upgraded. I have only ever encountered this once, when my site was hosted by a server that could not cope with the special requirements of a PTR website.

Ad requests, queries, or payout requests not being received

This is usually caused by your site mailbox being full, i.e. incoming messages have exceeded their allotted quota of server disk space. The simple solution is to delete some or all of the old e-mails, using the hosts e-mail client. You may also get this problem if your spam filter is set up incorrectly.

I cannot access the site, and a notice appears saying "This account has been suspended"

There's a simple answer to this one - make sure that you pay your hosting fees on time! Hosting companies are quick to display messages announcing non-payment, which is embarrassing for site owners and frustrating for members, so to avoid trouble, pay your site hosting invoices as soon as possible.

I get a "Web page not found" error when testing a paid ad

Usually this is caused by the site address being entered into a Cash Crusader ad form without the network protocol http:// at the head of it. Cash Crusader requires that all advertisements be entered with a full site address path to display properly.

How do I reset my admin password?

We have to get a bit technical here. If you have no experience of MySQL, contact the script supplier for assistance.

If you know what you are doing, you can change your admin password by deleting admin password from the system_values table in phpMyAdmin (assuming you are using cPanel):

1. Open phpMyAdmin from cPanel
2. Select your database from the left frame
3. Click system_values
4. Click Browse from top
5. Find admin password from the rows below
6. Click the red X from next to admin password, and confirm deletion
7. Go to your CC admin panel and enter your chosen new password.

Member Queries:

I cannot login to the Members' Area, even though my username and password are correct. What's wrong?

Members could experience this problem if the browser cache needs to be cleared. In fact it is worth putting the following instructions in your FAQ section, as it is a common problem.

Here's how to clear the cache in various browsers:

MS Internet Explorer (PC):

1. Click on "Tools" on the top menu.
2. Click "Internet Options".
3. Click the "Delete Files", and "Clear History" buttons.
4. Shut down the browser, re-start it, and re-load the page a couple of times.

Netscape (PC): 

1. Select Edit from the pull-down menu.
2. Select Preferences.
3. In the left table, select Advanced.
4. Select Cache.
5. Click on the Clear Disk Cache button, and then click on OK.
6. Click on the Clear Memory Cache button, click on OK.

Firefox:

1. Select Tools, and select Options on the menu bar.
2. Select the Privacy Icon on the Option menu bar to open Privacy Properties.
3. Select Clear across from the Cache option.
4. Select OK to return to the browser main page.
5. Exit and relaunch browser.

Internet Explorer (Mac):

1. Select Edit from the pull-down menu.
2. Select Preferences.
3. In the left table, select Web Browser.
4. Select Advanced.
5. In the second section where it says Cache, click on the Empty Now button.

Netscape (Mac):

1. Select Edit from the pull-down menu.
2. Select Preferences.
3. In the left table, select Advanced.
4. Select Cache.
5. Click on the Clear Disk Cache button, and then click on OK.

I cannot access the site anymore

Internet Explorer sometimes needs an adjustment to its security settings to allow all content to be displayed. Tell the member to try the following:

1. Click Tools on the top of your Internet Explorer screen.
2. Click Internet Options.
3. Click the Security tab.
4. Click the Internet icon.
5. Click Custom level.
6. Locate Display mixed content
7. Click the radio button next to Enable (the default setting is "Prompt").
8. Click OK to save the changes.

Next: Glossary