Quick Tips, Services, Technical Support, Wise Reminders
and is current with software upgrades
Our approach at The First Step when dealing with a PHP update on your server, is to put your site into maintenance mode. Head over to your Xneelo Konsoleh control panel and login to your account. Take a moment with the following steps to see if PHP version 8 breaks your site…read on…
Do it yourself for free, here’s how
Want to troubleshoot this yourself? For Free? Here’s how….
Ready? You can do it!
Login to Konsoleh here > Manage Services > PHP Config and review your php settings.
On a shared hosting server max out your settings
Upgrade to PHP 8.0
Set ‘Display Errors’ to on
Save your settings. Visit your website. What do you see?
Your website is broken
All you see is lines of code at the top of your screen.
Don’t panic! Read between the lines. You will see pointers to plugins or theme that will give you an idea of what is causing the conflict with the new php update.
OR
There is an error message and you are locked out of your site!
Don’t panic! You got this. Here is what you do. You log onto your ftp server. This article does not cover ftp servers, but we will explain how to find your ftp server settings in your Xneelo Konsoleh dashboard:
To find your ftp server settings Login to Konsoleh here > Manage Services > FTP Users. You will see your FTP username but no visible password.
Simply click ‘Reset Password’, copy the autogenerated password, and save
options. You will then open your ftp client and connect to your website using your domain name, ftp user and ftp password. Nothing will break if you reset the password. If you are using your ftp password to log into Konsoleh then you will need to use the newly generate one for the next login.
Whew! that was a lot of info… What now? I’m on my FTP server.
On your FTP server, navigate to public_html > wp-content > plugins. Rename the plugins folder to plugins1.
Clear your browser cache , visit your site, reload the page, and voila! 9 times out of 10 your site will be back online. Now you know for sure it is a plugin conflict. But which plugin. Well…you can use the same method for the plugins folder on the individual plugins. Rename the plugins1 folder to plugins again. Then one by one rename each plugin, check if the site goes back online. If not, revert to the plugin name, try the next plugin, adding a 1 at the end of the plugin folder name. This is an arduos method but if you have not managed to figure out the errors or you are completely locked out of the site, this should regain you access.
I can do this I’ll carry on reading…
Inbetween the lines of code that the errors display you will see file directories. You are looking at plugins, themes or WordPress errors.
Step 1. Ensure all your plugins, themes and WordPress versions are up to date.
Step 2. Disable the offending plugin / Switch to a default WordPress themeĀ and reload your website page. If the error goes away you know that the culprit is either the plugin or the theme. If it is a plugin you rely heavily on for your site, you will need to start searching for a new one that has kept up to date with the PHP updates and set this up to replace the offending plugin.
If your theme has broken your site, you will need to contact the theme developers and take things from there.
If you are not using the plugin that broke your site, delete it and have a nice day!
My site is fixed
I did it all by myself
Remember, once you have resolved the issues you need to return to the xneelo dashboard and switch off ‘Display Errors’ under your php settings and save.
Well done you did it…
All by yourself!
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QUICK TIPS ~ Wise Reminders
Technical Support, WordPress How To's
A lot of password resetting
If you run a WordPress website and host it on Hetzner you will have heard about their Konsoleh client portal being compromised by a Hack into their SQL database…Although noone seems entirely clear as to how this security breach can affect us, it would be wise to follow their instructions and reset your ftp passwords and your database passwords.
The ftp password is quite simple to update, but if you are running a WordPress website you will need to update the database password as well. Log into Konsoleh, navigate to > Manage Services > Databases > Manage MySQL. Select the database to edit and in the password field enter the new password. Its advisable to use a strong password generator . Keeping this password on hand log onto your ftp server and download the file usually found in public_html called wp-config.php . (Otherwise it is found in the core files of your wordpress folder)
In this file you will need to change the database password found in the following string of the fileĀ (‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘password_changed_here’) to the password you have just updated in Konsoleh.
It’s fairly simple, save the file and re-upload it to the server where you fetched it from. Check your site, if you encounter an error such as ‘DATABASE ERROR ESTABLISHING CONNECTION’ this simply means the passwords were not set correctly or there was some error in copy pasting to the file you updated.
During the course of today whilst updating the passwords on all my clients sites this error occurred a few times. Although I was extremely careful, sometimes it just required that I deleted the old wp-config.php file and uploaded the new one, or in other instances just reset the password on the server.
I would like to emphasize that I have every confidence in Hetzner and this security breach has only benefited them in becoming even more secure.
If anyone requires my assistance, as this is a long and tedious process if you have many sites hosted on the Hetzner Server, don’t hesitate to call The First Step.
Good Luck!
Technical Support, WordPress How To's
The First Step offers WordPress training to anyone wanting to have more control over their WordPress website, Blogsite, Ecommerce shop or WordPress.com website.
Training is provided on a 1 to 1 basis either over Skype or at our offices. You can decide on the length of your training. Ideally you will need your own computer, laptop, Ipad or even a phone but this is a little more tricky to acheive training. We are based in Hout Bay, Cape Town, but distance is no problem. Download Skype and we can assist you just as easily by sharing our screens with you as you learn the different areas of your WordPress dashboard and what each one can do.
WordPress has a very clear interface and with a little perserverence you will be mastering your own site in no time.
A few valuable resources will help get you on your way. These will be specified below.
Firstly you need to know how to login to your WordPress website.Ā In most instances unless you have changed the login url for security reasons, you can reach your dashboard by appending your domain name with /wp-admin
Example:Ā http://your-domain.com/wp-admin
You will be prompted to enter your username and password.
You will need to enter your Website username and password to log in. Once logged in your dashboard can be momentarily overwhelming. Just focus on the menu on the left hand side of your dashboard. You are looking for Pages or Posts.
Click on either of these links and you will be able to edit an old page or post or start a new one.
Many people start their own WordPress site at wordpress.com . Here your website hosting is free and you have a variety of templates to choose from and limited functionality, but this is a great place to start familiarizing yourself with WordPress. Even so, it can become daunting and the once great intentions to build, master and host your own side and side step a web developer can be sidelined and all but forgotten.
Don’t lose hope. An hour or two of WordPress training at The First Step will get you back on your feed and running your own site, blog or online business like you are a pro! Don’t be daunted, take WordPress by the healm and master the most versatile publishing platform on the web.
Good luck from The First Step.
Services, Technical Support, WordPress How To's
How do I fix a hacked site? WordPress….
Did you recently receive an email from your service provider informing you that they have temporarily taken your site down due to security vulnerabilities and a hack?
This is quite a serious situation to be in. Not only is your website taken off-line, but the integrity of your business is compromised by hackers with malicious intent to use your site to farm traffic to their own often unethical websites.
This issue needs to be addressed immediately by someone with a good knowledge of recovering your website from a hack.
The First Step is experienced in fixing WordPress websites that have been hacked and compromised. A number of steps will be taken to clean up the bad content and in some instances this will require removing WordPress Plugins that are vulnerable to hacks and replacing them with new ones.
Once your website is back up we will add security plugins to keep hackers out and your content safe. Essentially you should have your website monitored and constantly updated to keep up with new security releases of your WordPress version and your WordPress plugins.
Having a secure WordPress Website is securing your online business.
Contact The First Step to secure your website against attackers.
