What? You didn’t even know I was gone? Ouch!

Well, in case you missed it, the website went down sometime after I went to bed last night. Tried to log on this morning and got a message saying there was a “database connection error”. I’m not even sure what language that is. I received an email from a reader (thanks, Kevin) telling me he also was unable to access my blog, either from Korea or a VPN. So, at least I knew the problem wasn’t local.

I was trying to remember the name of my webpage hosting service so I went scrolling through my emails and found this one from HostGator sent a month ago:

Hi John,

In an ongoing effort to bring you the very best products and services, we will be upgrading all of our servers to PHP 7.4. In addition to improved data processing, which can boost your site’s speed and performance, you’ll also gain increased security. Newer versions of PHP have more frequent security updates to help protect your site against unwanted hacks or malware.

When will it happen?

At some point during the upgrade window — March 2, 2021 through March 7, 2021 — your account will be updated, and older versions of PHP will no longer be supported. You may experience a brief disruption in service during this time

Okay, well that explains it I figured, even if I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about. I know my WordPress platform has been telling me to upgrade the PHP for several months, but obviously that was something HostGator had to do. Anyway, I went out and did my morning hike and when I got home, still no blog access. That didn’t seem like a “brief disruption in service” to me. So, I went and did what I should have done this morning and visited the HostGator help page, and selected the “live chat” option. Who wants dead chat, right?

In due course, I connect with Raj. He takes all my pertinent info and says he is checking on it. A few minutes later, he asks me some more questions (i.e. had I modified my website recently) and disappeared again. Then I get advised that a different person, also with an Indian-sounding name, was now going to assist me. He asked all the same questions that Raj had, then he too disappeared for a while. When he returned he told me to try and log into my website now, and voila, it worked! I tried to ask him what had gone wrong and if I could do something to prevent it in the future. The only response was that he had changed the e-password for the database. Whatever, it works, so I am satisfied.

When I did take a look at the blog dashboard, I noted that it was no longer warning me to update the PHP, so I assume HostGator had done that and in doing so triggered my problems. I have now updated to the latest version of WordPress (I wasn’t able to do so with the old PHP) and there are some changes in the interface I’ve noted while writing this post that I’m going to have to get used to.

Still, I’m glad to be back. I’ve got some catching up to do with y’all but now it is time for me to head out for darts. I’ll fill you in on all the excitement (I use that term loosely) tomorrow.

Thanks for dropping in!