Free or Paid Forum getting internal 500 error

[danshell]

Hi
My forum www.ozisuzu.com.au is getting an internal 500 error.

So I have either been hacked or something simple is happening that I am missing.

I am at a loss so I am open to outside help. If your able to help me please send a PM and we can discuss.

I am in the process of doing a restore to a date when the forum was working but it will take several hours and to be honest I think it is setting or something that has been changed on my server not the forum or its database.

[danshell]

Ok I restored it from a previous back up that was all ok and its still not working so it is something on my server that has changed that I can not see.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

A 500 should leave an entry in the server's error log. Try to find the entry, let us know what it says.

[danshell]

A 500 should leave an entry in the server's error log. Try to find the entry, let us know what it says.

There is a massive amount of errors but these are the latest few.....

Code Select Expand

[26-Jun-2018 11:01:04 Australia/Hobart] PHP Notice:  Undefined index: server in /home/dannyg/public_html/Sources/Subs-Post.php on line 627
[26-Jun-2018 11:01:04 Australia/Hobart] PHP Notice:  Undefined index: utf8 in /home/dannyg/public_html/Sources/Subs-Post.php on line 1262
[26-Jun-2018 11:01:04 Australia/Hobart] PHP Notice:  Undefined index: utf8 in /home/dannyg/public_html/Sources/Subs-Post.php on line 1264
[27-Jun-2018 00:40:35 UTC] PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected ''a:370:{s:10:"smfVersion";s:5:' (T_ENCAPSED_AND_WHITESPACE) in /home/dannyg/public_html/cache/data_5282456fbcfa8e93d15d08c65bdb217f-SMF-modSettings.php on line 1
[27-Jun-2018 00:40:39 UTC] PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected ''a:370:{s:10:"smfVersion";s:5:' (T_ENCAPSED_AND_WHITESPACE) in /home/dannyg/public_html/cache/data_5282456fbcfa8e93d15d08c65bdb217f-SMF-modSettings.php on line 1
[27-Jun-2018 00:41:36 UTC] PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected ''a:370:{s:10:"smfVersion";s:5:' (T_ENCAPSED_AND_WHITESPACE) in /home/dannyg/public_html/cache/data_5282456fbcfa8e93d15d08c65bdb217f-SMF-modSettings.php on line 1

[Kindred]

so, delete all of the data* files from your cache directory.

[danshell]

so, delete all of the data* files from your cache directory.

BANG you fixed it that easily!!

[danshell]

Thank you very much Kindred I am so appreciative.

[Kindred]

Glad that worked.

Keep an eye out if it happens again, though...
You would then need to check with your host as to why your cache files keep getting corrupted.

[GigaWatt]

I would disable cache all together. If it's not a big forum, it wouldn't matter, most hosts these days offer at least 100GB of bandwidth a month .

Glad you got it sorted out .

[danshell]

Thanks gents I appreciate the help and offers of help via pm.

I have to admit I am a complete numpty at all this type of stuff.......how do i disable the cache? 

[GigaWatt]

Admin --> Configuration --> Server Settings --> Caching --> Caching Level: No caching

Admin --> Configuration --> Server Settings --> Caching --> Memcache settings (leave empty)

[danshell]

Admin --> Configuration --> Server Settings --> Caching --> Caching Level: No caching

Admin --> Configuration --> Server Settings --> Caching --> Memcache settings (leave empty)

Thanks. At what point would I want to enable it again. I have around 4000 or so members now and growing at around 1000 or so real members a year.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

There is no one right answer to that, it all depends on your hosting, the amount of users online and so on.

[GigaWatt]

Thanks. At what point would I want to enable it again. I have around 4000 or so members now and growing at around 1000 or so real members a year.

Check up on your monthly bandwidth and CPU/RAM usage (if you have access to the hardware info of the server, depends from host to host, although most shared hosts don't share that info) from time to time, let's say, every couple of months or so. If you're hitting above 50% of you're monthly bandwidth usage, enable caching along with compression (compressed output).

In any case, the cache is mostly to save up resources on the server, like CPU and RAM usage. Even if the data most users will be accessing is cached, it still has to be transfered from the server to your users . You can enable compression if you'd like to save bandwidth. It should be enabled by default if you haven't messed around with those settings.

Admin --> Configuration --> Server Settings --> General -->  Enable compressed output