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A quick CPVLAB question... (with CLOUDFLARE) (11)


03-09-2014 06:13 PM #1 superboi (Member)
A quick CPVLAB question... (with CLOUDFLARE)

Hello,

Do you guys use cdn or cloudflare on your cpvlab installation?

Does it matter?

Well for me the speed matters... so I wanted the pages/php files to load fast...

anyway... my problem is with cache... there were times when I created a few landing pages... and some css/js was cached and I have to manually purge the files so the new ones shows up...

that's just a small portion of the problem...

my biggest problem is... (not sure if it is cloudflare's fault)

There are times... (actually happens 3times already)

when my campaign... is redirecting to a wrong OFFER....

basically the flow is like this:

The correct flow is this:

visitor --> goes to landing page of CAMPAIGN A --> visitor clicks the CTA --> visitor redirected to an offer1 offer2 or any offer that is "INSIDE" CAMPAIGN A


but for some reason 3 of my campaigns are like this:

visitor --> goes to landing page of CAMPAIGN A --> visitor clicks the CTA --> visitor redirected to a random offer OUTSIDE OF CAMPAIGN A

a very good example of my problem is like this:

Let's say I am promoting edates...

visitor --> goes to my edates landing page --> visitor clicks the CTA --> visitor redirected to a clickbank weightloss offer
the edates is CAMPAIGN number 40

and the clickbank weightloss is CAMPAIGN number 45

I already opened a ticket about this with CPVLAB... and the first time it happened... they checked my landing page and a screenshot of my campaign... and they saw that I forgot to put a unique ID for the offer... so that is why cpvlab is redirecting to any random offers... but when I added the unique ID... the problem went away... (for around 1week... then came back again) but this time... I did not forget to add unique ID's...

I also opened a new ticket with CPVLAB yesterday... and no replies yet...

I just want to ask you guys about this... and how to avoid this from happening... (could it be cloudflare's fault?)

the lvl1 support on cpvlab said they haven't tried CLOUDFLARE... so they do not know...

Thanks a lot guys...


03-09-2014 11:38 PM #2 zeno (Administrator)

Don't mix a CDN or Cloudflare with your tracking system. Your tracking system is dynamic and there is little scope for caching. In fact, trying to cache such things will likely break functionality and cause problems.

Using CloudFlare/CloudFront in front of a tracking system is advanced stuff and well outside what you want to get involved in.


03-10-2014 12:22 AM #3 superboi (Member)

Thanks Zeno!

I went ahead and added a page rule to my cpvlab installation... hoping this fixes up the problems


03-10-2014 02:15 AM #4 zeno (Administrator)

The issue here is that you are using a service that caches frequently requested pages to accelerate delivery. The tracking system invariably deals with unique URLs and there is therefore little use for CDN-based caching. If Cloudflare loads a unique link and sees lander A then it caches lander A as the response. You're then screwed if you want to rotate landers. If outgoingclick.php goes to offer A then this gets cached and now all landers send people to the same offer.

You then need to tell CloudFlare to NOT ignore querystrings, so that it treats outgoingclick.php?offer=25 differently to outgoingclick.php?offer=26. However, if you are rotating offers on the backend again you have just screwed things by caching.

Furthermore, the IP of the user will always be CloudFlare and this messes with your tracking. You have to set up header-forwarding rules in your nginx/Apache/etc configuration.

I'm not sure how to spell this out more clearly.... Don't use CloudFlare with your tracking system. It is not going to do what you want it to do.


03-12-2014 04:23 AM #5 superboi (Member)

I have configured Cloudflare to spit the visitor's real IP via Apache...
(this really was a pain long time ago... especially when I try to ban users in my forums... my vbulletin can only ban cloudflare's IP... but they already plugged this loophole... a few months back..)

Anyway... so far the page rules fixes the cache problems and querystrings... I can't test much further though... I ran out of funds... (lol).. on my end... and other virtual machine (with vpns)... the campaigns are working as they should be...

Thanks for your concern though...

If I find any further issue... I will go ahead and get this badboi out of cloudflare... and get a new server...

I am just trying to save my main server's IP from those prying eyes...
I have been a victim of multiple DDoS... every now and then... and I currently only have 1 dedicated server...
(I used to have 9 big dedicated servers... when money was flowing... but now that it isn't anymore... I am left with only 1 server.)
I cannot allow those script kiddies.. to find out my server's real IP... or all my website that making money will be toast!


03-12-2014 06:16 AM #6 zeno (Administrator)

Are you running CPVlab for tracking on a server which is also hosting other websites that make money by their own means?


03-12-2014 07:14 AM #7 superboi (Member)

well yes... is that going to be a problem?

this is a dedicated server... I own all the sites that is in this dedicated server...

and I still have adsense/medianet websites in this server...


03-12-2014 07:19 AM #8 caurmen (Administrator)

Do you have WordPress installs on that server? If so, I would STRONGLY advise getting a different tracking server. If I had a dollar for every time I'd heard of someone's tracking getting rooted thanks to a wp exploit... Well, I'd have about eight dollars, but that's still too much risk.

Unless you're running huge volume, you could just get a $5 vps and run your tracking on that, avoiding cloudflare and security issues all at once.


03-12-2014 07:26 AM #9 zeno (Administrator)

Yeah... don't run tracking on the same server. You want to be able to scale tracking independent of other websites and the last thing you want is, as Caurmen says, a WP-related event causing strife with your tracking.

If you aren't running millions of clicks daily you won't need a dedicated server.


03-12-2014 07:30 AM #10 superboi (Member)

Hi caurmen,

yes I have a couple of wp installs... I am pretty sure this server is rock solid and so does my wp installs...

but yeah I guess you are right... I will look into getting a new server for this tracker...

Thanks a lot guys...


03-12-2014 07:31 AM #11 superboi (Member)

Yep!

I will be getting a new server for the tracker...

Thanks again...


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