XC-Host — Support Blog

Currently the server runs php 5.2.12. I feel it’s time to upgrade to the latest php 5.2.x build. I wold stay current and go for the latest version of php being 5.3.3 but a lot of people have problems..

The build has been saved in cPanel all I have to do click the “Build Profile Now” button and in about an hour or so it will be done. I figure Sunday @ 11pm is enough of a notice to everyone. Will post again once complete.

EDIT: All done! http://wp.ly/Ci

– Joe

Got a notice that some pages weren’t resolving and that email isn’t working. Looking into this now. From a first glance it looks like named, apache and just now mysql are all down. More soon.

An account was using excessive load. I have a screenshot showing the load at 75. Everything is returning to normal as I type this.

As of late the server was almost compromised twice. Thankfully I am always monitoring the server for suspicious activity and squashing it if necessary. So effective immediately any account that I have to suspend because of it not being updated, or causing harm to the server will incur a reconnection fee of $20 USD.

This includes wordpress, e107 and any other cms, blogging tool. I’ve posted time and time again to keep your cms or blog updated but it doesn’t seem to be working. Keeping CMS / Blog Software up to date and WordPress Attacks happening now! That is why I’ve added this new fee..

– JoeM

Just finished fixing two more sites that were giving 500 errors because of chmodded folders set to 777. I checked out one site at random and found an older install of wordpress running. As I’ve stated in the past you have to keep your installs up to date. Not doing so leaves the server open to potential exploits which in turn can cause the server to be compromised. That is why I offer to upgrade your wordpress installs whenever a new version comes out (minus 3.0 for now). All you have to do is submit a Support Ticket, send me an email or instant message on msn.
As you also know I made this mandatory and your given 48 hours to fix the problem (or have me fix it) before the account is suspended. To see the specific post I’m talking about click here.

After the recent attacks one measure I’ve been meaning to activate is suPHP. Last week I activated it, and found one site that is a big forum to not work at all. So I turned it off. Last night I activated it again and fixed said forum.

In total I’ve fixed three accounts at this moment, the latest being another forum.

If any of your accounts have problems before contacting me make sure your files are not chmodded to 777 or 666. suPHP doesn’t like this instead leave them as 755 or 644.
If at this point your site still doesn’t work send in a support request and I’ll get it fixed asap.

Update #2 April 9 @ 1:06pm It looks like the attacks have stopped, everything is working fine.

As you may have noticed throughout the past week the vps has experienced massive http floods. Preventative measures have been put in place. These measures are being updated frequently as the attacks persist.

Right now if one ip has 50 or more connections it is banned for thirty minutes. In most cases I have permanently banned them. As with everything there can be false positives. So if you can’t connect to your website please fill out the Support Form and your ip address will be unbanned..

I will post more updates as they come..

UPDATE #1 @ 9:56pm The server was rebooted as the new changes that were implemented today don’t seem to be doing anything.
The server techs don’t know if this is a software or hardware issue. The data centre is going to run tests and we should have a definitive answer soon.

FINAL EDIT: The move is done, if any account was improperly transferred please let me know asap, we only have roughly 10 more hours before the other server is taken offline permanently.

Yes it looks like yet again we are moving. Were not moving hosting companies just going to a smaller vps. Since I don’t pay for the server anymore it’s been a tough time for the person who took over. The only feasible way to keep things going is to move to a vps (virtual private server).

A move date has not yet been set but from what I was just told it will be by the end of this month.

Reading this over it looks like I’m telling you a lot of nothing.. I’ll post more details once I know them..

EDIT on Feb. 23rd @ 8:16pm Looks like it might be by the end of the month, settled on a 100GB vps. More soon.

EDIT on Feb 25th @ 4:46pm The new vps is setup, currently transferring accounts over. The nameserver ips will not change. Currently transferring the nogs00 reseller. More to come..

EDIT on Feb 25th @ 5:03pm Just finished manually transferring all the packages.

EDIT on Feb 25th @ 5:46pm PHP has now been compiled with version 5.3.1. Transfers start soon, unlike what was mentioned above.

EDIT on Feb 25th @ 6:21pm Account transfers have begun, so far only nogs00, and alphades. More soon..

EDIT on Feb 25th @ 6:41pm 19 accounts have been transferred so far.

EDIT on Feb 25th @ 8:27pm 43 accounts have been transferred at this time. The resellers dmlanger, mint and root’s accounts will be transferred tomorrow. This will be the last update tonight.

If you are reading this then the server switch was successful. I’ve moved away from mjz’s hosting because of the unreliability as of late.

Still no updates on the server move.. But things are underway..

Not sure if anyone else noticed this but there was some downtime earlier yesterday around 10pm. I had to get the latest version of cPanel before upgrading php and firefox decided to take a shiz on the deal and crash. Long story short I had to kill the still running upcp process before running /scripts/upcp — force to re-install cPanel from scratch. This took the longest to do and then I finally got to rebuild php.. That took a good 45 minutes for that and it looks like suphp still isn’t installed. I’ll take a look in the morning, NEED SLEEP..

UPDATE BEFORE SLEEP: Turns out I was doing it wrong, thanks to some quick googling even me being half awake can fix the problem.. Now every php script run will show as your user account and not “nobody”. Which in short makes the server secure.

The drive was installed last time the server went down and only today it was mounted, formatted and I setup the backups.

Too bad I didn’t know sooner or I would have mounted the drive and setup the backups..

Backups run daily, and I’m trying full backups at the moment. The backups have already run for the night as I haven’t changed the server time yet.. More soon.

– JoeM