Serious GoDaddy Hosting Problem

[justuk]

Not on my computer, so will be brief.  You need to migrate everything off GoDaddy asap, but you must make local backups of all files and databases, everything is at risk when GoDaddy screws up.  If you can, do a full cpanel backup and download it to your computer.  Migrating to a better host is not a big deal, can be done in a few hours, but you must have complete local backups in case your GoDaddy account goes ****up.

Hi, I have a problem with my hosting on GoDaddy. I have had a Simple Machines Forum for 10 yrs, anniversary in a couple weeks.

In that time I haven't had a major problem like I have had in the past week. It started last Friday, maybe earlier My websites, including this forum are all going down, after they run for maybe 1 to 5 or a few more minutes. I have Frontier DSL and maybe not the best ISP, does a decent job. But even on my Verizon 4G it goes down. I've run tracert reports for GoDaddy and myself & the failure happens near the end as the request time outs occur. GoDaddy says they reject those anyway. They say my site works fine in Arizona and no problems.

So they say on my end or somewhere in the middle.

We have customer near London, England and she has had the same problem. She sent me an error message The remote computer isn't responding to connections on port 443, possibly due to firewall or security policy settings, or because it might be temporarily unavailable. Windows couldn't find any problems with the firewall on your computer.

My other sites, PHP code, but mostly HTML, and not a lot of server requests. I also wasn't able to access my cpanel for a while or FTP. I did try a free VPN and when I log on to USA, Mexico, Canada, Great Britain, even the Ukraine, I connect okay. Then again the connection doesn't usually last long.

When I use our forum, when I try to go to like a member page, when they last logged on, it usually starts to bog down and spin and then an error. When that happens all my websites stop working.

My current version of Simple Machines Forum is SMF 2.0.15 | SMF © 2017, Simple Machines. I should update, but would this be causing the problem?

Could my PHP code be too old?

BTW I created a website two years ago, with HTML 5 for a client. It is also on GoDaddy Servers and Linux like mine. His works perfectly all the time. When I run a tracert on his site, it usuall is quicker, and it doesn't go to Arizona, but rather to Washington D.C. servers that GoDaddy most have there.

I am seriously thinking of going to another hosting, such as BlueHost. I do have a lot of content on GoDaddy, not sure how many gigabytes, though much of it could be removed. I also use a couple of email addresses for my websites on GoDaddy.

It will take some time to migrate my sites. I have at least four domains that I need to keep running. I also would have to setup MySQL databases for a few WordPress blogs, that aren't currently too active and also are down when my site is up. Most or all of them have been uploaded manually to GoDaddy, though I think I might prefer to have WordPress work automatically for me.

This has been exhausting with GoDaddy. They haven't been a super superb company. But I used to get some great service from the techincal team in the past. Now it seems that I'm either getting the runaround or I'm just been in the computing field too long!

Going to retire because it's been a long week already, but will be working from home tomorrow, so will respond to any responses & can offer more info if needed.

If I may..I can HIGHLY recommend my host company as in my siggy...

[bdtcomp]

I am thinking InMotion right now. From what I read it has better tech help than DreamHost & a bit cheaper. But it's a close call. I will talk to InMotion and if sounds good, and I can try it for a shorter than six months trial, to test that will work. I like the fact that total migration may be the answer.

I want to find the largest files on my GoDaddy site, mostly videos, but I think I have some ZIP backups, that I probably don't need. But if I delete them first, my download file will be smaller.

I do have a small number of videos on some pages, and a couple are large, 500 megs. I think I may want to optimize them for online viewing at some time, as sometimes I have a few people watching a video I have posted. Maybe that isn't too important since my site is not video intensive?

[bdtcomp]

Success! The forum files are on the new server. I'm happy so far with InMotion Hosting. I have the backed up database ready to connect.

But I can't get install.php to work. I thought I had the file stored with a non-working name. But when I went to install I get:

Maintenance Mode
Down a few minutes for attachment changes. I think you may like this cool feature. :coffee: UPDATE: Moving to a new Hosting, 5 March 2022, Prayers for all Ukrainians!

My message I added before I backed up the database & then moved the files to the new hosting.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

I hope you mean index.php.  If you already have a database and files, no need for install.
If the message is themed, you as admin should be able to login and take the forum out of maintenance.
If it's just text on a white screen, you can edit settings.php to switch out of the maintenance mode.

Repair_settings.php is a tool to fix all settings after a move, you may want to check it out as well.
What is repair_settings.php?
How do I move my SMF forum to a different host?

[bdtcomp]

Thanks Aleksi. I did have a repair program renamed on my site. For some reason it didn't work.

But when I ran it, the message that the database connection info was incorrect.

I have decided to redo my download with a zip file, which I should have done before. I am going to reinstall all my domains that way now.

[bdtcomp]

I did a maintenance on GoDaddy before I put into maintenance mode. I noticed that my error_log file is 200,000 bytes. Can I just make a copy and create a new empty one or leave it be?

[Kindred]

Just delete that file

[bdtcomp]

Thanks Kindred.

[bdtcomp]

Okay, I think I was able to connect to the database once, but then I got a message that the connection to the MySQL database was not communicating.

I redid the site with my Zip file so that I could just restore quickly. Unfortunately I have to upload again, because I thought I had unchecke just thd zip file, but apparantly it became checked again, so it will be 45 minutes before I can get the uploaded file back in.

Below I changed the actual names. When I fill in the username and database I assume I leave the bdt_ part off, but it is the prefix I use right below?

My MySQL database and username ~ User: bdt_irish

Database: bdt_irish

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

All database related details are things only you can really know.

[Illori]

All database related details are things only you can really know.

well the host should be able to confirm the database server and username are correct. they could also reset the password for it to confirm the connection works.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

That is assuming a lot, but yes that would be likely. What I really meant was that _in here_ the OP is the only one who can know.

[bdtcomp]

I am assuming the MySQL database needs to have the prefix assigned with the actual name, same as the username. I somehow uploaded my old datafiles from 2014 by mistake, so again I'm waiting 45 minutes to re upload the 745 megabyte zip file. At 2 Meg upload speed today, that takes awhile.

Maybe I should have hotspot my 4G and tried this.

[bdtcomp]

I know I made a mistake as I put a different prefix than smf_ which phpMyAdmin is showing to be just that. That hopefully will make it work. This is the hardest domain for me to get setup, the others will be much easier, though a small bit of work to tweak all the settings.

[bdtcomp]

I'm up and running thanks everyone. Kindred, Aleksi, Doc Coordinator...

It looks good with the update.

I do have an error in 8: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in Subs.php file?

[bdtcomp]

Wow, who knew that going from GoDaddy to another hosting could be so beneficial.

Most of my sites are up and running, a small furnace & ac repair for a friend is still on GoDaddy, though his content is on my new hosting.

I still have my Subs.php giving me errors, that I have to manually delete, but will start a new thread after I close this one.

[bdtcomp]

I'm closing this post, but will open a new one on my Error Log problems.

It's been just wonderful with InMotion@Hosting. All my domains are up and secure. My two blogs as well as my Simple Machine forum is also up. My three web hosting emails are up and working, and they are all IMAP. I just have to contact my furnace guy, (I set up his website as a favor) and let him know that I am going to forward his website email to him with a new server email, and to make sure he checks his spam.

[landyvlad]

Wow, who knew that going from GoDaddy to another hosting could be so beneficial.

Most people here

Probably 90% of hosting related drama questions prove to be from people with sites hosted by godaddy.

GoDaddy is a great example of where a company has chosen to invest their $ in advertising rather than service quality and stability.
And then rely on making it a real effort to people to change away.  But it's always worth doing so.


 

[me314159]

@bdtcomp - Still happy with InMotion Hosting?