Two repeat issues with exact pattern of no help.

[brentfm]

Issue 1 - The settings on the server have again defaulted to index.htm instead of index.php. This makes it impossible to automatically setup a wordpress site. Please change the order of default homepages on our server so that index.php is the first priority. This was addressed in s previous support ticket. An example domain would be: http://bigislandsafety.com/ - Please notice that the wordpress site is not loading. It is because the index.htm file is taking first load priority. It's a setting on the server. The same problem is still affecting nearly a dozen of our customer websites. It is also preventing our customers from creating their own wordpress sites.

I just needed the setting on the server changed.


Issue #2 - My personal site, brent.fm has been hacked. A SQl truncation vulnerability has been exploited. Someone accessed the server without permission and created a random password generator that is preventing me from loging into my wordpress site. I have tried everything I know how including: http://www.village-idiot.org/archive...word-recovery/ I'm requesting two things. 1. Help fixing this problem. 2. A more secure server. thank you very much for your continued support

I just needed help. What I got was an email address. Maybe your accounting department would take an email address from us when payment comes due?

payment@oursite.com


This is really irritating especially when you call on support, give them the problem and the solution and get stonewalled. All the support person had to do was review my history for ten minutes to see that I was telling the truth.

I invested deeply into your service with over 50 sites. I have paid more for my service than what your competitors charge, for nearly a year now. I cannot get any service in return. All you want to do is take more money.

At some point my blog posts will make a difference though. The playing field isn't just level. You'll also find it's transparent. The days are gone when you can take money remotely and not act with integrity. The hundred bucks a month we pay will eventually be worth the case study.

Thanks for providing a forum where I can share my thoughts on your service. I don't suppose you'd let me write a few blog posts on your blog?

[brentfm]

okay, I just fixed the bigislandsafety.com site. All I did was rename index.htm and the WordPress site with index.php works.

Would someone please adjust the setting on the server that serves our sites so I don't have to load every customer site we manage?

Note: We didn't change the setting. You did. We just want it changed back. Aren't all of your customers with WordPress sites complaining that their sites aren't working? Maybe you just do this to our account?

[GatorDHanna]

Hi Brent,

We automatically add an index.html file to new sites. To my knowledge, Apache uses index.htm before it uses index.php. All you have to do is delete the index.htm file and then it will go to the next index file (i. e. index.php).

As far as security problems, exploits usually occur when customers have out of date or vulnerable scripts. WordPress is one of my favorite pieces of software, but some of the older versions are vulnerable to exploits.

[brentfm]

Thanks Douglas, the server needs to be changed so that index.php loads before index.htm. This is the exact same issues I was having a couple months ago when all my sites were reset to use the index.htm file. All of my customers suddenly had their websites replaced with our "Coming soon" message.

If it were as you wrote, the WordPress one-click installs would never work properly since the WordPress homepage would never been seen. I just want the setting put back the way it's supposed to be. This is the exact same issue have had before with exactly the same service -a week later it might get fixed.

The turnover in support must be high. I was sure that I had taught everyone at the first level support about this issue and how to resolve it. Isn't anyone working on this? Why do the settings get changed? Why doesn't anyone in support recognize the issues before my clients call me?

[brentfm]

The security issue still has not been resolved.

This is such a common problem that WordPress released a bug fix. If you do not know how to fix the problem, please let me know so I can move my site.

I use my site to market my services and as such need to keep the content fresh. It's been three days. You don't offer a one-click upgrade and you have not given fixed the security breach.

You're leaving all of your customers vulnerable y not allowing them to upgrade and by not protecting their servers in the first place.

It's not right for you to ignore this at the billing level either. When a denial of service attack hits, you should be more responsive. You should know about security breaches before your customers. Reacting to our needs rather being proactive to secure the server is just wrong.

[GatorDHanna]

Brent,

I asked one of our most senior system administrators and he thinks your issue has to do with a series of changes that were the result of a security vulnerability on a few servers (which has since been fixed). He told me there is an easy way to fix the issues you're having and that the fix should be effective for what you need.

If you haven't already, could you send in a support ticket (support@hostgator.com) with a description of the problem? When you have that ticket ID, reply to this post or send me a private message on the forums with the ticket ID. As soon as I get that, I'll escalate it to one of our senior administrators to get this taken care of right away.

My apologies about the inconveniences. We can definitely get this fixed for you.

[brentfm]

Thanks Douglas, I did send the support ticket a few days ago. I specified the problem. The last reply I got from support did not address the problem but did outline the underlying issue, "The problem is still persistent, but is not exactly supported by us."

As soon as I get another break, I'll see if I can get some insight in the WordPress hosting forum. I appreciate your response.

[GatorDHanna]

Brent,

If you provide me that ticket number, I can escalate it to one of our senior administrators who can take care of it for you.

[brentfm]

Thank you...
Ticket ID: ICM-2829862

[brentfm]

lost another day?

[brentfm]

lost another day... I still cannot access my site due to a security breach in your network. My only option is to move my site from the root level to a new host.

I want a portion of my 50 monthly fee credited back to my account. Thanks

As per your support ticket:

"Thank you for clarifying that you do not support this. that's all I needed to see. I will go to the Wordpress forums now. Thanks."

As per DHanna's last response I am moving this to an upper tier admin.

[brentfm]

well I never got service returned for all my users but I did find out from another customer that their site was taken down. All you ever had to do was change the default load order of pages from index.htm to index.php. I must be the only one being affected or smart enough to troubleshoot your chaos. All good, I'll do it manually as my clients inform me their sites have stopped working. The good news is that godaddy offers a faster way around your support inadequacies at a cheaper price.

Just so you know I despise godaddy. But anything is better than you support. I've been waiting two weeks for this to be fixed. At least my blog is getting good search results so a few potential customers should be spared the agony. Thanks for having a place for me to vent besides the blogs.

slow by slow I'm moving my domains as far away from your servers as I can. Just a few more weeks and we'll be free!!!

[GatorDHanna]

Brent,

One of our upper tier admins was working with you on the ticket you provided. We'd be more than happy to help you resolve the issue. Changing the default order is a common fix and something we can of course help you with.

If you could reply to that ticket and explain the difference between what is happening and what you would like to happen, we can work with you to get it resolved. As soon as we fully understand what is and is not happening, we can work with you to correct any problems.

[GatorBrent]

I've reviewed both of your issues and this is what I found....


1. Any time you create a new site you will need to delete any index.html or index.htm files that you may have in the account. If you do not do this you will continue to have this problem. The order the server checks is index.html then index.htm, and last index.php as long as the other two don't exist you won't have this problem. If we changed it to load .php first then all the people who want index.html by default which is the norm would complain. This is not something we can do I am sorry.

2. We are not the creators of wordpress. In your ticket we found the problem was a result of a module you added. I'm sure you can respect that hostgator cannot be expected to support every word press module in the world. It is also your responsibility to keep your software up to date.


Please let me know if you have any questions.

[GatorBrent]

This thread is being moved to support forum since the main issues are not hg related.

[globalpro]

Maybe it's just me, but I am not seeing where this is an HG problem.

The first one about the index.htm file is easily corrected, as stated, by removing that file. Why would you want it there anyway, if you are using a WP blog? This can also be fixed in your .htaccess file, if you just have to keep the extra file (index.htm) there.

The second one about the hack is definitely a WP issue. Since WP is such a popular platform on the 'net, it has become a favorite of hackers everywhere. If you keep up to date with the releases, you will definitely minimize the chances of being hacked.

This becomes more crucial where the plug-ins are concerned. WP does pretty good with their fixes, but a lot of plug-in developers don't.

I think all in all, HG has gone the distance in trying to help...

or maybe I am missing something.

Thanks,

John