FirstData (previously known as LinkPoint) is currently one of the most popular payment gateways on the internet; with small to enterprise business trusting it to process transactions.
Schogini has been working with FirstData for over 10 years now both as a merchant and as a developer.
Our FirstData payment modules are currently being used in over 2000 shops world wide – Magento, OpenCart and PrestaShop.
Based on our experience these are some of the common issues or questions that FirstData payment gateway users have:

  1. What is all the fuss about PEM!?
    A PEM file is unique digital file which FirstData issues to each merchant.Every time your shop tries to talk to FirstData servers, FirstData will first check the validity of the PEM file.If, its not valid or corrupted or cannot be read by FirstData (that is wrong file permissions) then all further processing with stop and FirstData will return an error like this:”Error: unable to use client certificate (no key found or wrong pass phrase?)”You can download your PEM file by logging into your FirstData account > Support > Download Center.

    If, you do not see it there then, raise a support ticket with FirstData and they will get you in.

    These 3 points are basic & quick ways to check the validity of your PEM file. Open the PEM file and check:

    • It should have at least 30 to 31 lines
    • It should have 2 sections Private Key and Certificate
    • The PEM file format should look somethings like this:
      —–BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY—–
      ……….
      ……….
      —–END RSA PRIVATE KEY—–
      —–BEGIN CERTIFICATE—–
      ……….
      ……….
      —–END CERTIFICATE—–

    If your PEM file fails any of these points then, it is most probably corrupted and you will need to download it again.

  2. The difference between Live & Test modes?
    It is always advisable to test the payment gateway in TEST mode before going LIVE.For FirstData, test and live accounts are 2 separate accounts and hence there are 2 separate PEM files!You need you register separately for a test account, login into the test account and download the test PEM file – just like you would do for a live account.You can register for a FirstData test account here:https://www.firstdata.com/gg/apply_test_account.htm

    REMEMBER: If you use a LIVE pem file in test mode or the other way round then, you will get the error:

    “Error: unable to use client certificate (no key found or wrong pass phrase?)”

    Yes, this is the same error that you get when FirstData cannot intepret your PEM file – and it is correct since the live and test servers are different and hence, they cannot understand each others PEM files!

  3. The port 1129 mystery.
    For security and convenience, FirstData communicates with your shop ONLY through port 1129 of your web server.On most hosts, this port is closed since, this is not a common port for communication.If, port 1129 on your server is closed then, FirstData will not be able to talk to your shop at all and you will see an error like this:”Error saying: couldn’t connect to host.”Ask your host to open port 1129 for outbound traffic. They should be able to handle it.

    If, your hosts says that they can open the port only for a specific IP then, request them to open outbound traffic on port 1129 for secure.linkpt.net.

  4. FirstData vs. LinkPoint.
    LinkPoint is now called FirstData Global Gateway. This basically means that your LinkPoint account should work absolutely fine with FirstData!

Summarizing, to use FirstData on your shop you will need 3 things:

  1. A merchant account with FirstData. You will get a store ID when you register. Remember it.
  2. PEM file. This is a unique digital file that FirstData assigns to you to identify you securely.
  3. Port 1129 open for outbound traffic on your web server

You can get more information on FirstData’s online payment solutions here:

http://www.firstdata.com/en_us/products/merchants/online-and-telephone-payments.html

Hope this has helped clear some of the doubt clouds around FirstData payment gateway.

If, you are Schogini payment module user then, this FAQ is more specific to the module and should definitely guide you better: http://schogini.biz/firstdata-linkpoint-faq

If, you need to purchase the FirstData Payment Module you can go to http://schogini.biz

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