On January 22, 2012, USPS will update domestic shipping services and international pricing and product features. For detailed information on prices and new product features, please reference the Federal Register Notices viewable at http://pe.usps.com/.

It was necessary to wait to release the new USPS module for the Zen Cart team, as the API in order to test the new USPS module functionality would not be live until then.

The new module for Zen Cart 1.5.0 is  backwards compatible for 1.3.8 and 1.3.9. Perhaps further back, but no one should be running anything less than 1.3.9H with the plans to upgrade to 1.5.0 as soon as possible. The old module will likely continue to work for most shipping methods, but there are some new ones added.

If you need the new USPS module installed, please visit our store to check out.

Those of you using FTP will need to observe the a proper TLS connection. Here is a tutorial (http://pro-webs.net/tutorials/setting-up-an-ftp-connection/)

cPanel Passwords will all nag and require you to reset them every 90 days. Additionally, the password strength will need to be 65 or better.

Our servers have been protected against some new attacks reported by PCI/DSS.

ALL server cyphers have been updated to disable SSLV1 and 2.

Security Tokens have been enabled. This will require you to properly login to your cPanel (NOT from a saved session) in order to save actions, do or complete any function in your cPanel.

Our servers are currently a "A" rating for SSL Server Rating (https://www.ssllabs.com/downloads/SSL_Server_Rating_Guide_2009.pdf).

While we certainly realize these changes seem and can be inconvenient, however, the new PCI/DSS requirements for June 2012 are going to be a huge change. We intend to be ready, compliant, safe and secure. Just a note that ALL of the above changes are already required by PCI/DSS.

Use coupon code 2012 when checking out.

Awesome Grid Pricing generator

Have you been to shops that have really cool pricing grid for shoppers to easily read and compare pricing and options? Now we have a FREE Pricing Grid HTML generator for you to use. We hope to continuously bring you new and helpful tools to help you run your business. Let us know what you think of the new tools!

QR Codes are defined as a matrix bar code (or two-dimensional code), readable by QR scanners, mobile phones with a camera, and smart phones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on white background. The information encoded can be text, URL or other data.

To you, they are a new cutting edge business tool!

This one says
http://pro-webs.net/

How can you use QR Codes for your business?

QR Codes are readable by all sorts of hand held and tech devices, such as iPads, smart phones etc. These devices read the code in a scan instantly making use of the data stored in the code.

QR Codes for Business:

• Create location codes for users to scan and locate you.
• Create codes for print, mobile and web advertising.
• Use a vCard QR Code on your business cards.
• Add a bookmark QR Code to your website.
• Create a QR Code that says anything you like!

Want to use QR Codes for your business?

Got you covered!~ Checkout our NEW, FREE QR Code generator.

What does this new tool offer you?

» Generates QR Code Images and Urls
» 8 possible types (email, phone, vCard, location etc).
» Provided toy you, free to use!
» Generate QR Codes for many business uses.
» Cutting edge smart phone data technology.
» Create, then link, download or share it in your favorite social media platform.

Enjoy the new tool and have a great Labor Day holiday coming up!

Thank you,
PRO-Webs Support
330-871-HELP
Does Your Site Exist?

Jekyll Island

As many of you already know, we have relocated PRO-Webs and all of it's resources to sunny southern Georgia. Woodbine, GA to be exact. Wonderful rural area with close proximity to beaches and awesome schools which is 7 miles from Florida. This move was mostly a personal decision.... Face it if you could live anywhere....

Some new goings on around the office that we would like to update you on are included in this newsletter. Please ask any questions you like and have a great day!

New Billing Center: We have moved our billing from the previous vendor to FreshBooks. The change was in part out of need, but mostly a personal decision to keep our business with vendors who use the same ethical business practices as ourselves. A few invoices still exist in the old billing center and will wrap up its use one completed. The feedback on the new billing software has been very good: Easy to use, professional and fast. The new software also gave us the ability to offer Google Checkout for your invoices as well as PayPal, Visa, Mastercard and Discover. The billing center is here... check it out for yourself.

New Help Desk: In giving up the old billing software we sought out a better solution for help desk support. You can find a link to the Help Desk in the footer of all pages as well as the "Home" and "Resources" top menus. We hope this software will streamline our support process and help you immensely. Certainly we would love to hear any feedback you may wish to share on the new Help Desk.

Zen Cart 1.3.5: A great deal of you have asked questions about the new PCI Zen Cart 1.3.5. This release is only in Beta testing and we are not currently building stores or upgrading to this version. The journey to PCI certification is a long and daunting road, we fully expect this will be in testing for an extended period of time and will reevaluate our position once it has been released for live shop usage.

From 8/4/2011 through 8/11/2011 we will be unreachable. In this gap Judy Gunderson will be covering support requests for us. Please note that only pressing or emergency items should warrant contacting Judy, as she has her own customer base to take care of as well.

Please use the following information to contact Judy if need be. Judy has full access to all of our servers and software to help you.

Judy Gunderson
ph: 816.252.1566
http://zencart-ecommerce-website-design.com/index.php?main_page=contact_us

We expect to be back to work on Aug. 11th from sunny southern Georgia! Please note that the billing address for your invoices has changed as well.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you,
PRO-Webs Support

http://pro-webs.net/

330-871-HELP
Does Your Site Exist?

Become a Fan! http://www.facebook.com/prowebs
http://www.facebook.com/ZenCartMarketing
Follow Us on Twitter http://twitter.com/prowebs
Find me on Zen Cart http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/member.php?u=45948
LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/prowebs

The recent new Google shopping requirements are set to go in to effect on May 3rd. (http://pro-webs.net/blog/2011/04/04/important-information-about-your-items-on-google-product-search/)

Unless your product is apparel or a custom product you will need to supply 2 of these 3 identifiers in your Google shopping feed.

1. UPC
2. Brand
3. MPN

All of the feed generators you are using will meet these requirements. So no one will require additional software.

Step 1:
You will need to properly create manufacturers in your Zen Cart (http://pro-webs.net/tutorials/creating-manufacturers-in-zen-cart/)

Step 2:
You will need to switch your Model Number field in your products to be the manufacturer's part number (MPN).

Please complete these steps a quickly as possible if they apply to you.

Starting April 7, we will be adding the following list of IP addresses for www.paypal.com to the DNS:

66.211.169.74
66.211.169.14
64.4.241.193
64.4.241.225
173.0.84.2
173.0.84.34
173.0.88.2
173.0.88.34

This change should be transparent to most merchants and may not require any action on your part.

However, if you are using IPN for Order Management and your IPN listener is behind a firewall, you may need to update your firewall configuration to allow outbound access to these IP addresses. This action will ensure that your IPN listener does not get intermittent timeouts when performing IPN validation by posting back to https://www.paypal.com.

For more information on IPN, please refer to https://www.paypal.com/ipn.
These new IP addresses have been added to MTS FAQ: https://ppmts.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/92.

For those of you who are still using the Zen Cart Paypal IPN as your method of receiving PayPal payments, the Zen Cart Developers are strongly recommending that you instead use PayPal Express checkout which is more up to date.

The announcement from the Zen Cart team is in this post: http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=177771

This is a good time to remind you that you really should be using PayPal Express Checkout if you’re accepting PayPal on your site. Using the old IPN/Website-Payments-Standard method for payments is becoming antiquated and has been known to have problems in various circumstances. Using the newer Express Checkout approach is far more reliable for completing payments and giving your customer up-to-date confirmation that their order has been paid and accepted by your store.
Naturally, also upgrading to the latest version of Zen Cart is similarly valuable and important.

Although e have already updated all of our server's firewalls, we strongly advise you navigate to Admin >> Modules >> Payment >> PayPal Website Payments Standard - IPN and make sure you are NOT using it. This method is quite deprecated and very prone to API call issues when PayPal is having issues or taking the normal "very long" time to respond to the IPN call. To switch, simply uninstall it and switch to the PayPal Express Checkout.