Regarding to IPN & API Changes

[Ruben01]

I received an e-mail from Pay Pal regarding IPN & API changes. I just using the Virtual Terminal/Merchandise Services' area of the software.  Should I also make any changes? If I have to, could you give some tips on how to do it? or be more specific on the procedure to follow. I mean like an step by step instructions.

 Many thanks in advance,

 Ruben 

[Misty11]

Hello Ruben01,

If you are only utilizing the PayPal Virtual Terminal there is no need to make any changes regarding IPN & API updates. If you do have a website then you may need to update this information. Please let me know if you are utilizing just the Virtual Terminal or both Virtual Terminal and Website Payments Pro and I can provide additional information.

Misty

[Ruben01]

Hello Misty, thanks for your respond. I also accept payments through the web site. Please guide me with the changes I have to do. Ruben

[Misty11]

Hello Ruben01,

To get the best guidance with making changes to your website IPN and API please visit the PayPal Developer Forums here. I hope this helps.

Misty

[jez6363]

You should consider yourself lucky you got an email warning..., I only found out of a n IPN change when I nearly sent a customer two items from one order.

I processed an order today (28 Sep 11) through Virtual Terminal, and was manually entering it into our order system, only to find it HAD been passed through the IPN system (which we pull automatically), as a complete order (ie WITH shipping address).

These orders never used to get passed through the IPN in a usable way (the address was not passed through).

When this change happened is hard to say, as we rarely use VT because of the broken IPN support. But it was between 4 July 11 and 28 Sep 11. From looking at their info about IPN changes, they talk about IP addresses etc, but say nothing about the change to passing addresses through. So maybe someone just fixed the obvious bug they had with IPN and Virtual Terminal, and nobody was told about it.

I am pretty upset with PayPal - no notification of this type of change is inexcusable. I even have a ticket in the PayPal support system, from when I reported this problem. 

It was not exactly rocket science for them to check for their customers who use Virtual Terminal and IPN, and send them all an email.

Not impressed at all with PayPal communications, or lack thereof.

Ditto the long awaited move of data centres - we got a bazillion emails about it being delayed, but not a single one to say it has been completed (supposedly on 24 Sep).

[PayPal_RobG]

There was no datacenter move on the 24th of September, nor was there a change to the structure of IPN data.

Can you please log a ticket with us at https://www.paypal.com/mts/ so we can look further into your issue?

On the 24th of September there was a planned database migration on Payflow Pro (and Website Payments Pro UK), which completed according to schedule.

Full details on this migration are available via https://www.x.com/content/follow-planned-downtime-during-sep-24-maintenance-pf-live-2222

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To answer the original question;

Starting September 29th, www.paypal.com will be accessible through a lot more IP addresses than it used to be.

This means that if you block outgoing connections to www.paypal.com for IPN validation on a per-IP-address basis in a firewall, you may no longer be able to validate your IPN data.

You should thus open your outbound firewall to all IP addresses listed on https://ppmts.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/92

We will also drop support for non-SSL secured IPN postback (via port 80). You *must* post back to https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_notify-validate over port 443 from now on.

In addition to this, the same shift will occur for all PayPal API endpoints per November.

Notes:

1. It's very rare to block outbound connections. It's usually inbound connections that are blocked. If that's the case for you, this change won't affect you.

2. Your IT staff / vendor can assist you in determining whether or not this affects your integration.

Lastly; Merchant Technical Services is fully briefed on this change and can answer any and all questions you may have on this. Feel free to file a ticket with us at https://www.paypal.com/mts/