lost session variables in apache/php since nod32 installed

hello,

i have several windows 2000 pc's that operate as a retail cash registers. i installed nod32 on one of them and have been having trouble with it (just the nod32 machine) ever since. the point-of-sale application is in php & apache. the data is in sql server & the browser is internet explorer.

the main problem is that about once or twice a day, in the middle of an active transaction, i lose all my session variables.

slightly less worrisome, but just as mysterious to me, is that sometimes i get the error "this page cannot be displayed / dns server error" in internet explorer (also in the middle of a transaction).

IMON is already disabled and following files are excluded in AMON: sql server log files, backup files, and data files; the apache & php folders; my apache document root, containing the point-of-sale application; and the system files specified by the microsoft knowledgebase article (the ones in c:\winnt\software distribution etc). but it feels like i'm missing something.

i've even replaced the computer itself to rule out hardware problems, but the session variables are still getting lost. meanwhile, none of the other machines have antivirus software and they all run like a charm.

i've looked in this forum and various php & apache forums, and googled like crazy, but have yet to find a similar situation.

any ideas out there?

 

hi co_op,

Is the IMON icon actually grey and not red, and then a reboot?

Cheers

 

TEMP folder used by apache/php?

 

yes, the icon is grey. i did a remote install from the server, and had already disabled IMON when i configured the installation package. it was rebooted immediately after the install and a couple of times since then.

 

the only temp folders i'm aware of being used by php are c:\php\sessiondata and c:\php\uploadtemp. c:\php is excluded in AMON.

i don't know what temp folder is used by apache but i'll try to find out and post a followup. fwiw, the entire apache program folder is excluded in AMON as well.

incidentally, this error message in the php log coincides with the lost session variables: PHP Warning: Unknown(): open(C:\PHP\sessiondata\sess_xxxxx, O_RDWR) failed: Permission denied (13) in Unknown on line 0.

 

Try going into AMON Setup and click on the 'Extensions' button. Uncheck 'Scan all files' and delete the PHP extension from the list. Restart and see if the problem occurs.

 

good idea, sparx! i hadn't thought of that. it's done now and i'll let you know how it goes. thank you.

 

good news: i have not lost my session variables since i changed the file extensions settings in AMON. so far so good . . .

however, going back through my php logs, i noticed that this problem of lost session variables had actually happened a few times before i installed nod32; it just started happening way more frequently after i installed nod32. so it's hard to say whether the extension change solved the problem, or if it coincidentally went into remission around the same time and will reappear later, unrelated to nod32.

but the plot thickens: on the same machine, i'm now getting a dns server error every few days (and sometimes several times a day) when connecting to local host in internet explorer. is there any way to tell if this is related to nod32? should i start a new thread for this issue?

thanks!