LevelTen Hit Counter Help Troubleshooting

This page contains the solution to the most common issues. If this page does not correct your problem, use the support forum to resolve your issue. Issues: L10HC_Admin.cgi installation errors

When I run the L10HC_Admin.cgi I get a "Permission denied" Error
Script returns message "Script cannot write to files."
When I run the L10HC_Admin.cgi I get an "Internal Server Error" or "500" Error
Error message reads "1% is not a valid Windows XX application"
All I get back to my browser is a long list of programming code.
My server returns: "The specified CGI application misbehaved by not returning a complete set of HTTP headers. The headers it did return are: Can't locate L10HC_LIB.pl...

L10HC_Reporter.html dialog box errors

"There was a problem loading the L10HC_FlashParams.txt file."

Other Issues:

I have everything installed but the system is not counting page hits.
The counter display is not visible on my web pages.

Solutions:

File Permissions Not Set Properly

All CGI scripts must be given permission to run on a server, you do this by setting their file permissions via FTP with a chmod feature or Telnet. You need to set all the CGI scripts files, to read, write, execute (abbreviated as '777'). To do this in a FTP program, select the files and use the chmod option. In most FTP programs a dialog box will pop up allowing you to enter '777' or will have checkboxes. If you FTP has checkboxes check all of them. If you do not have access to a chmod capable FTP program you can use Telnet. Use your telnet program to navigate to the CGI directory and issue the command 'chmod 777 L10HC*.*'. If when you run the script you now get a 500 Internal Server Error see item 3 under 500 Error back to top

Directory Permissions Not Set Properly

This error means that the script cannot create its parameters and data files because the script does not have write permissions on your server. To enable the script to write files, you must set the directory permissions for the directory the L10HC_Admin.cgi is in to '777' (read, write, execute). Use your FTP to set the permission or a Telnet program to chmod the directory to '777'.

If when you run the script you now get a 500 Internal Server Error see item 3 under 500 Error

Internal Server/500 Error

We have setup the L10 Hit Counter to match the most common CGI settings. However, every server is setup differently and those differences can cause the script not to run, ie an Internal Server Error. Follow the below steps to correct the problem

1. Path to Perl incorrect - Every CGI has a line at the top of the script that tells the web server where the Perl libraries are on the server. We have set the scripts to use the most common path "#!/usr/bin/perl -i". However other server may have Perl in a different place.

Use a text editor to open L10HC_Admin.cgi and L10HC_Counter.cgi and replace the path to perl with one of the following:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -i Windows NT/2000 servers
#!C:Perl\bin\perl
#!D:Perl\bin\perl

Your hosting company will be able to tell you the correct path for your server. Upload the files with the new path to Perl and re-test. If it does not work proceed to remedy 2.

2. Scripts must use .pl or .plx extension - Some servers will not execute Perl scripts with a .cgi file extension. These servers need Perl scripts to end in the ".pl" or ".plx" extension. To fix this problem, simply change "L10HC_Admin.cgi" and "L10HC_Counter.cgi" to "L10HC_Admin.pl" (or .plx) and "L10HC_Counter.pl" (or .plx). Then reload, set the file permissions and try running the script with the new extensions. If you still get an Internal Server Error proceed to Remedy 2; try different combinations of Remedy 1 and 2. 3. Invalid file permission - Some servers will not allow certain file permission settings. Most commonly, some servers restrict write permissions to only the user, e.g. the 755 permission. If you try to set the permissions to 777 the server will return a 500 Internal Server Error. Try to set the file/directory permissions to 755 and test the script.

If this removes the 500 error but now you get a "Cannot open..." or "Cannot write..." message this means that your server is setup so that CGI scripts do not run with the same user and FTP/Telnet. Your hosting company may have set this on purpose to block CGI scripts from writing to the server, which the Hit Counter needs to do to store statistics. In this case contact your hosting company and inquire how to set file permissions so that a CGI script can write files.

Windows server not configured for Perl

This error means that your Windows web server is not currently setup to run Perl scripts. To configure Perl on your server follow the instructions at Active Perl back to top

Perl File Not Recognized

If when you try to run a CGI script and all you get back is its source code listing in the browser; that is because the server does not recognize the file as a Perl script. This can be caused by two situations: 1. The server does not recognize the .cgi extension as a Perl file. To troubleshoot this cause see item 2 under 500 Error 2. Perl is not configured on the server. This is extremely rare on UNIX servers but some free and budget hosting do not allow CGI scripts. It is fairly rare on Windows servers that are hosted by hosting companies, but if you have your own server, Perl is not always installed by default. To install Perl on a Windows server download ActivePerl at www.activestate.com It is free and has an automated installer. back to top

Library Path Not Set

The two primary L10 Hit Counter scripts are L10HC_Admin.cgi and L10HC_Counter.cgi. Both share local libraries of code, e.g. L10HC_LIB.pl, L10HC_LIB2.pl and so on. This error occurs because the server is not looking in the local directory for the LIB files. You have two choices for solving this problem:

1. Add the local directory to the library search path. To do this you will need to add to both L10HC_Admin.cgi and L10HC_Counter.cgi the code line:

use lib qw(C:/Inetpub/wwwroot/hdocs/cgi-bin/);

where the path specified in the line is the path on your server to where the L10HC_LIB.pl file is. Put the line in the two scripts right under use CGI ':standard';.

2. Move the LIB files to a directory already in the INC paths. When you get the error you should get a line similar to:

@INC (@INC contains: C:/Inetpub/wwwroot/perl/lib C:/Inetpub/wwwroot/perl/site/lib .)

If you move all the L10HC_LIBx.pl files to one of the directories listed in the @INC list then your script will find them.

Flash Params File Error

The L10HC_FlashParams.txt file tells the Flash Admin where to look for its data, e.g. the L10HC_Admin.cgi script. It should be of the format "cgiPath=http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/L10HC_Admin.cgi". There are three main causes you might get this error in the Flash Admin. 1. File Missing - Verify that the L10HC_FlashParams.txt file is in the same directory as the L10HC_Admin.html file. The L10HC_FlashParams.txt file can be gotten from the CGI directory that the L10HC_Admin.cgi file is in after installation is complete, e.g. the script creates it upon installation. 2. Server corrupting file - The FlashParams file must be served as is. Some budget hosting companies put banner ads or other code into every page on your site. This code may be corrupting the file. You can check this by using a browser to navigate to the file and verifying that only the cgiPath string is in the page. 3. Missing Path - It is possible that your Flash Params file was not configured properly at initialization. To correct this you must manually edit the L10HC_FlashParams.txt file by adding the full URL including http:// between "cgiPath=" and "&". Then upload to the directory where the L10HC_Admin.html file is located. back to top

Counter Not Working

First use your browser to navigate to the L10HC_Counter.cgi script. It will be in the CGI directory with the L10HC_Admin.cgi script. If you get back a blank page then the script is working properly, proceed to Problem With Embedded HTML Tag. If you got back an internal server error when you ran the L10HC_Counter.cgi then your system does not support symlinks. To remove this error you must open the L10HC_LIB.pl file in a text editor such as Notepad. You will find a line of code near the top that reads: $symlinkFlag = 1; change it to, $symlinkFlag = 0; Re-upload this file to your server in the L10HC CGI directory. Use your browser to reload the L10HC_Counter.cgi. The server error should be gone. back to top

Problem With Embedded HTML Tag

The HTML code that you get from the "Page Tracking Code" under the options tab in the Reporter, must be placed in your page exactly as is. This is normally fairly straight forward in most HTML editors. However, some editors offer two options for inserting tags, insert as HTML and insert as text. Choose the insert as text option. back to top

Counter Display Not Visible

By default the counter display is turned off. Most people use the system just to keep statistics. However, if you want to display to your visitors statistics about site traffic you can using the counter display.

To use the counter display you must make sure the code for the counter display is in your page tracking code. To do this, use the Reporter under the "Options" tab and uncheck "Remove hit counter display". Then click save to the right of the check box. This will alter the page tracking code (generated by using the "Page Tracking Code" button) to include the counter display.

If you have embedded the code in your pages and the scrolling messages still are not visible then verify that the L10HC_FlashParams.txt file is in the same directory as the HTML page that you want the counter display to be on.

By default the messages are black text. If you have a black or other dark back ground you can change the color of your messages by highlighting them in the Reporter under the "Option" tab in the Hit Counter Messages section and use the "Text" menu just above the edit area to select a new color.