Troubleshoot a Connection Problem

If you have successfully used Pubnet via your point-of-sale system in the past, but now you are having connection problems, below are some common causes and steps you can take to help identify the problem. 

These troubleshooting suggestions start from a complete failure (nothing sends / receives) and then work down to more specific cases where only one vendor or purchase order is giving you problems.

Please visit https://www.pubnet.org. If we are having a planned maintenance window or an unexpected outage you should see a message to that effect. If you are not on our email list for outages, please contact us and request to be added.

Please locate the username (your SAN) and password you have entered into your POS software for electronic ordering. Use those same credentials to log into https://www.pubnet.org. If you can login successfully then it is not a credential issue. If you cannot login, send us a screenshot of your credentials and ask us to re-set them to match.

Something in your network environment may have changed. For example a Windows Update may have set your Network to Public instead of Private, causing the firewall to apply different rules. Or you may have replaced a router and need to re-configure your firewall software to let your point-of-sale system connect to our servers. Your network is outside our area of expertise but you can contact our Customer Success Specialist, Jill Hendrix, if you do not have anyone else who can help you with this.

• Perhaps the PO got corrupted. Try copying your items to a new PO and sending that one. 
• If this is a new vendor you've never ordered from before:
  • If your system allows you to set your own Vendor names, then remove any punctuation in the name (especially a forward slash / )
  • If your system requires you to set up each vendor with your credentials, double-check that there are no leading or trailing spaces in the username/password for that vendor setup.

• If you use Anthology, double-check that "Use Passive FTP" is checked on the Vendor EO settings.
• Login to https://www.pubnet.org and search for a POA from that vendor (you'll need to know the vendor SAN). Or email support with your SAN and PO number and let us know you are missing a POA.

• Do a Zoom meeting of one with a screen share and record the problem as it happens. Share with MVB Support and your POS provider.
• Ask your POS provider if they can access your communication logs to shed more light on the issue.