Tech. support scope

bikegremlin · November 2021

Related to the thread on my strange WordPress problems.
https://talk.lowendspirit.com/discussion/3554/strange-wordpress-problem

TL/DR: I've done all the diagnostics I could do and my WP sites aren't working properly.
Migrating several of them to different servers gets each of those working.
I've communicated all the info I could find and diagnostics/troubleshooting I've done to the hosting provider's tech. support.

Questions:

Is this enough to conclude that WP in and of itself is not a problem?

Is it reasonable for tech. support to just say it's fine on their end and leave it at that for 8 hours now (on a work day)? I understand it's reseller hosting, not a managed WordPress hosting - but this doesn't seem like a WP problem. Even if it is, is such highly limited support scope a rule of thumb?

EDIT: nothing urgent, not losing millions. Hassle migrating 'sall. And not really sure where to migrate to (MyW.pt is it for now - and looking to try Brixly).

johnk · November 2021

I'll reply to both this and your other post here.

Frontend works OK, but I can't log into the backend.

Can you elaborate on that? What is the error logging in? Does /wp-login.php not work? Or does it show a different message upon logging in?

To make things even more confusing - adding a new account with a fresh WP install works fine!

So then - as far as their concerned, WordPress/cPanel is working properly. I see you mentioned small outage, so it's possible that something went wrong with the DB (in which case, they should probably at least attempt to fix it) - but otherwise, as far as their concerned, everything is working.

@bikegremlin said:
Related to the thread on my strange WordPress problems.
https://talk.lowendspirit.com/discussion/3554/strange-wordpress-problem

TL/DR: I've done all the diagnostics I could do and my WP sites aren't working properly.
Migrating several of them to different servers gets each of those working.
I've communicated all the info I could find and diagnostics/troubleshooting I've done to the hosting provider's tech. support.

Questions:

Is this enough to conclude that WP in and of itself is not a problem?

Is it reasonable for tech. support to just say it's fine on their end and leave it at that for 8 hours now (on a work day)? I understand it's reseller hosting, not a managed WordPress hosting - but this doesn't seem like a WP problem. Even if it is, is such highly limited support scope a rule of thumb?

I think what you'll find is most shared/reseller plans (reseller even more so) don't support anything beyond platform issues. Many (most?) hosts will make a best-effort attempt to solve any WordPress/application issues out of courtesy, but rarely is it actually "in-scope." Managed WP is another story.

So yes, it would be reasonable IMO. Is it ideal? Probably not.

johnk · November 2021

I'm curious if you see a "Sorry, you are not allowed to access this page." error.

bikegremlin · November 2021

The error I get with Cloudflare proxy enabled:

Error 524 Ray ID: 6b30e3e89e4571fa • 2021-11-24 07:24:48 UTC
A timeout occurred

The error I get with Cloudflare disabled:

Request Timeout

You can browse the website normally, but if you try to log in (open the wp-login/wp-admin link) it gives that error.
The same happens with my webshop. You can browse products, but if you click on "my cart" - wait, then see the error.
Website search option - same problem.

johnk · November 2021

Ok - so your site is completely broken, not just isolated to parts of WordPress. Some places work because of caching.

For example:
https://io.bikegremlin.com/?cachebreak
https://io.bikegremlin.com/21406/directadmin-backup-automation/?cachebreak

johnk · November 2021

Have you tried deactivating plugins via File Manager/FTP? Ideally all of them. Just rename plugins to plugins.d temporarily

bikegremlin · November 2021

@johnk said:
Have you tried deactivating plugins via File Manager/FTP? Ideally all of them. Just rename plugins to plugins.d temporarily

Doesn't help.
Tried it just to be on the safe side and test every option.

johnk · November 2021

@bikegremlin said:

@johnk said:
Have you tried deactivating plugins via File Manager/FTP? Ideally all of them. Just rename plugins to plugins.d temporarily

Doesn't help.
Tried it just to be on the safe side and test every option.

I think in this case it does seem like an underlying backend issue that HM would have to resolve. If it was just wp-login.php, probably not, but if it's the whole site, probably PHP related because LS is working. I'm presuming a new/blank install on the same domain doesn't work either?

bikegremlin · November 2021

@johnk said:

@bikegremlin said:

@johnk said:
Have you tried deactivating plugins via File Manager/FTP? Ideally all of them. Just rename plugins to plugins.d temporarily

Doesn't help.
Tried it just to be on the safe side and test every option.

I think in this case it does seem like an underlying backend issue that HM would have to resolve. If it was just wp-login.php, probably not, but if it's the whole site, probably PHP related because LS is working. I'm presuming a new/blank install on the same domain doesn't work either?

I've tried creating a new DirectAdmin account and installing WP - that works!
Haven't tried making a blank install on an existing account.

johnk · November 2021

@bikegremlin said:

@johnk said:

@bikegremlin said:

@johnk said:
Have you tried deactivating plugins via File Manager/FTP? Ideally all of them. Just rename plugins to plugins.d temporarily

Doesn't help.
Tried it just to be on the safe side and test every option.

I think in this case it does seem like an underlying backend issue that HM would have to resolve. If it was just wp-login.php, probably not, but if it's the whole site, probably PHP related because LS is working. I'm presuming a new/blank install on the same domain doesn't work either?

I've tried creating a new DirectAdmin account and installing WP - that works!
Haven't tried making a blank install on an existing account.

I would do that. That would rule out it being an issue with your WordPress installation.

bikegremlin · November 2021

@johnk said:

@bikegremlin said:

@johnk said:

@bikegremlin said:

@johnk said:
Have you tried deactivating plugins via File Manager/FTP? Ideally all of them. Just rename plugins to plugins.d temporarily

Doesn't help.
Tried it just to be on the safe side and test every option.

I think in this case it does seem like an underlying backend issue that HM would have to resolve. If it was just wp-login.php, probably not, but if it's the whole site, probably PHP related because LS is working. I'm presuming a new/blank install on the same domain doesn't work either?

I've tried creating a new DirectAdmin account and installing WP - that works!
Haven't tried making a blank install on an existing account.

I would do that. That would rule out it being an issue with your WordPress installation.

Tried - won't go. Not on an existing DA account.

johnk · November 2021

@bikegremlin said:

@johnk said:

@bikegremlin said:

@johnk said:

@bikegremlin said:

@johnk said:
Have you tried deactivating plugins via File Manager/FTP? Ideally all of them. Just rename plugins to plugins.d temporarily

Doesn't help.
Tried it just to be on the safe side and test every option.

I think in this case it does seem like an underlying backend issue that HM would have to resolve. If it was just wp-login.php, probably not, but if it's the whole site, probably PHP related because LS is working. I'm presuming a new/blank install on the same domain doesn't work either?

I've tried creating a new DirectAdmin account and installing WP - that works!
Haven't tried making a blank install on an existing account.

I would do that. That would rule out it being an issue with your WordPress installation.

Tried - won't go. Not on an existing DA account.

Okay - that does sound like a Hostmantis Issue. I'd ticket them one last time and present this new information along with what you've tried to see if they'll take a closer look.

bikegremlin · November 2021

@johnk said:

@bikegremlin said:

@johnk said:

@bikegremlin said:

@johnk said:

@bikegremlin said:

@johnk said:
Have you tried deactivating plugins via File Manager/FTP? Ideally all of them. Just rename plugins to plugins.d temporarily

Doesn't help.
Tried it just to be on the safe side and test every option.

I think in this case it does seem like an underlying backend issue that HM would have to resolve. If it was just wp-login.php, probably not, but if it's the whole site, probably PHP related because LS is working. I'm presuming a new/blank install on the same domain doesn't work either?

I've tried creating a new DirectAdmin account and installing WP - that works!
Haven't tried making a blank install on an existing account.

I would do that. That would rule out it being an issue with your WordPress installation.

Tried - won't go. Not on an existing DA account.

Okay - that does sound like a Hostmantis Issue. I'd ticket them one last time and present this new information along with what you've tried to see if they'll take a closer look.

Did it.
Have relayed every info I came across today - as ticket updates.

bikegremlin · November 2021

I stand corrected. WP install did go through after about 10 minutes (highly unusual - too slow, never seen anything like that).
But the website shows exactly the same problems as the other WP websites on my account - can't open it, can't log into the backend.

Ympker · November 2021

@bikegremlin said:
I stand corrected. WP install did go through after about 10 minutes (highly unusual - too slow, never seen anything like that).
But the website shows exactly the same problems as the other WP websites on my account - can't open it, can't log into the backend.

At this point it is likely an issue with HM since it works fine on MyW. Perhaps, they changed their config. Could also be smth else. It's hard to tell.

johnk · November 2021

Mmm. Those 13 processes PHP Processes by chance? Could be something dangling that's blocking execution.

bikegremlin · November 2021

@johnk said:
Mmm. Those 13 processes PHP Processes by chance? Could be something dangling that's blocking execution.

Can't tell from the logs that I can see.

I'm interested to know what those are too.

bikegremlin · November 2021

It was PHP after all - as I wrote in the topic on the WP problem.
Took them too long IMO - almost 12 hours with no feedback whatsoever (I did ask them to let me know if they are working on it, or not so I can start migrating websites... and after about 4 hours, I had started migrating websites). All super civil, polite (from both sides), but not good communication IMO. Far from pleased.

Ympker · November 2021

@bikegremlin said:
It was PHP after all - as I wrote in the topic on the WP problem.
Took them too long IMO - almost 12 hours with no feedback whatsoever (I did ask them to let me know if they are working on it, or not so I can start migrating websites... and after about 4 hours, I had started migrating websites). All super civil, polite (from both sides), but not good communication IMO. Far from pleased.

From what I remember, Brixly support was more "friendly" and looking to help. If you want a managed solution, Kinsta is probably one of the top providers in that field, from what I have heard and seen.

Tech. support scope

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