Can't install ModX packages.

When I click on Download Packages I get the error message: "An error occurred while connecting to the Provider: MODx received a blank response from the provider. Please double check your service URL and make sure the provider is a valid provider."

It worked yesterday but it doesn't today even though I haven't changed any settings that I know of. cURL seems fine, the IPs are not being blocked by my host. I don't know what to do? Could the packages server be down? The following is my error report. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. (Please note I'm not an experience ModX user so, please could you be quite detailed in explaining how to do things?)

Kindest Regards
Chris

[2011-12-02 09:42:55] (ERROR @ /connectors/workspace/packages.php) Could not connect to provider at: http://rest.modxcms.com/extras/
[2011-12-02 09:42:55] (ERROR @ /connectors/workspace/packages.php) Could not connect to provider at: http://rest.modxcms.com/extras/
[2011-12-02 09:42:55] (ERROR @ /connectors/workspace/packages.php) Could not connect to provider at: http://rest.modxcms.com/extras/
[2011-12-02 09:42:55] (ERROR @ /connectors/workspace/packages.php) Could not connect to provider at: http://rest.modxcms.com/extras/
[2011-12-02 09:42:55] (ERROR @ /connectors/workspace/packages.php) Could not connect to provider at: http://rest.modxcms.com/extras/
[2011-12-02 09:42:55] (ERROR @ /connectors/workspace/packages.php) Could not connect to provider at: http://rest.modxcms.com/extras/
[2011-12-02 09:42:55] (ERROR @ /connectors/workspace/packages.php) Could not connect to provider at: http://rest.modxcms.com/extras/
[2011-12-02 09:42:58] (ERROR @ /connectors/workspace/packages-rest.php) Could not connect to provider at: http://rest.modxcms.com/extras/
[2011-12-02 09:42:58] (ERROR @ /connectors/workspace/packages-rest.php) Could not connect to provider at: http://rest.modxcms.com/extras/
[2011-12-02 09:42:59] (ERROR @ /connectors/workspace/packages-rest.php) Could not connect to provider at: http://rest.modxcms.com/extras/
[2011-12-02 09:53:16] (ERROR @ /connectors/workspace/packages-rest.php) Could not connect to provider at: http://rest.modxcms.com/extras/
[2011-12-02 09:53:16] (ERROR @ /connectors/workspace/packages-rest.php) Could not connect to provider at: http://rest.modxcms.com/extras/
[2011-12-02 09:53:17] (ERROR @ /connectors/workspace/packages-rest.php) Could not connect to provider at: http://rest.modxcms.com/extras/
[2011-12-02 09:53:17] (ERROR @ /connectors/workspace/packages-rest.php) Could not connect to provider at: http://rest.modxcms.com/extras/
[2011-12-02 09:56:50] (ERROR @ /connectors/workspace/packages-rest.php) Could not connect to provider at: http://rest.modxcms.com/extras/
[2011-12-02 09:56:50] (ERROR @ /connectors/workspace/packages-rest.php) Could not connect to provider at: http://rest.modxcms.com/extras/
[2011-12-02 09:56:51] (ERROR @ /connectors/workspace/packages-rest.php) Could not connect to provider at: http://rest.modxcms.com/extras/
[2011-12-02 09:56:51] (ERROR @ /connectors/workspace/packages-rest.php) Could not connect to provider at: http://rest.modxcms.com/extras/

This is also the error that my hosting company return

[Fri Dec 02 10:04:07 2011] [warn] RewriteCond: NoCase option for non-regex pattern '-f' is not supported and will be ignored.

Also I've tried http://rest.modx.com/extras and that makes no difference.

Manually download the package and move to /core/packages. If you don't have privileges to unzip files (like myself) then also drop the unzipped directory in there (as well as the zipped package). Then go to Package Management "Add new package" and choose "Search Locally for Packages" to install the new package.

If it worked before, your host may have added or changed the mod_security settings.

I'm working it through with my host and they don't seem to think its a problem with the ModX install. Are there any disadvantages to installing manually? (e.g. having to upgrade the package manually)

Hard to say as I haven't had to upgrade a package yet, just uninstall (and that provides several options for retaining or deleting data and files). I'd say the automated way you're trying to achieve would be much easier though if you've got the time to resolve it.

Installing packages manually should be exactly the same as getting them though Package Manager, though it's much less convenient. The install process itself is unrelated to the download. Basically, the download just downloads the package to core/packages and puts it in the grid. Downloading manually to core/packages and searching locally for packages does the same thing.

The only down side is that you won't get notification of available upgrades for the package in the PM grid.

To play devil's advocate: I noticed some outages from the modx site periodically this week, and secondly, depending on your server, the package installation can get clipped by various security and permissions settings, so looking at logs in this case (e.g. mod_security logs) can be invaluable.

Downloading manually to core/packages and searching locally for packages does the same thing.

The only down side is that you won't get notification of available upgrades for the package in the PM grid.

Would be a handy feature to have the upgrade notifications for manually installed packages...

I've seemed to have solved the problem by changing the provider, service URL from http://rest.modxcms.com/extras/ to http://rest.modx.com/extras/, then logging out and logging back in.