I would just like to apologise to all my loyal readers as well as newcomers to my blog. From Monday the 18th, my blog has been up and down.
I had a few problems on Monday where this blog was up and then down. I checked my database and some of the tables were just empty, they contained ZERO records. I was confused as hell and I still don’t know what happened.
I had a previous backup file using WP-DBManager plugin and asked my hosting company to restore using that file. They came back saying that it had timed out and not all the tables information was copied. I then reverted to another backup file I had from the 16th and it also timed out.
My blog was up then, but I was not sure what was missing. I accepted some comments, but thought it would be wise to fall back on a backup file that was full and that never timed out. So, my hosting company reverted back to a database backup from the 14th that they had made. This one did not time out 
What does this mean?
All the comments and replies since the 14th are all gone. This some what upsets me as I had received a lot of comments and now some of my posts are back to zero.
Final Thought
I will be requesting more database backups from my hosting company and I might have to tighten security a bit.
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Article by George Serradinho
I am the proud owner of Serradinho and have made this my second home. I'm into blogging, downloads, WordPress and the internet in general. I also love meeting and helping others and learning new techniques.
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- Published Date: 20 January 2010
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{ 40 comments }
I was trying to add a comment on Tyron post last night…and at times your blog was working fine and soon it started showing error establishing database connection…
Harsh Agrawal´s last blog ..Snag it: Professional Image editing and screenshot software For bloggers
@Harsh – yes, I’m sorry for that. I hope my troubles will be less this year as then I can concentrate on other important things. I had a tough time, but thats all in the past.
Hi George
Have u predicted the reason why this hell happened.
Atleast we all can be careful in the near future.
Good to hear that u have reverted to original state
Atul
Atul´s last blog ..Top 25 Universities Of The World (2009)
@Atul – not really. All I can say is that my options table was empty and WP uses it for many things with ones site/blog. I just know that I must make more backups and get things safer for me and my blog.
I am really getting more and more paranoid now that I’m reading about this happening. Last week, my blog and one other site I maintained got hacked. Good thing the hacker only inserted his trademark page in place of my home page, and did nothing else (I hope). I think I gotta think seriously about backups and blog security. I have always taken these things for granted because my blogs are small after all and shouldn’t be very attractive to hackers. But like I elaborated in one of my posts, hackers hack for the sake of hacking.
I suppose this thing with your blog is just a server issue and not a hacking issue George?
James Moralde´s last blog ..H-a-ck-ed!
@James – I read about your site being hacked and all, it’s a tough and cruel world out there
Anyway, I doubt it was hacked or I would hope to think so. One needs to make daily or weekly backups for small to large sites/blogs, hackers don’t care as long as they can make SH*T.
It’s too bad to hear that, but no worry we’ll be here and it doesn’t matter if some of the comments had been lost, as long as all your posts are safe. When you blog is getting famous, you’ll be their next target to hack your site. I hate hackers, they always throw us sh*t!
All the best bro!
Cheers,
Lee
@Lee Ka Hoong – thanks man and I agree that hackers are SH*T. I think they some times have nothing better to do than destroy and make life hard for others.
No Prob George , it happens . I observed it yesterday. But No Problem , your blog is so nice that everyone will visit it again & again.
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@SmashinGeeks – thanks for the kind words, appreciate it
I hope everyone returns and maybe shares their experiences as well.
It is ok! We will still support this blog as you always provide us a valuable information. However, i think i have to request my web host to backup my blog too. Thanks for reminding!:)
@Kok Siong Chen – glad to hear. Yes, ask them to make a backup, you never know when you might need it.
Just happy to see you back online George, nothing but a speed bump in life my friend
@Extreme John – glad to be back up, was upset that my blog was down. These things do happen in life and one needs to just go with the flow and be strong, lol.
What is the problem finally? What hosting service are you using now? I am so sad to hear that and hope you can find out the way to overcome this issue.
@Tinh – I still can’t find out why or what exactly happened, confused as hell as some would say. Doing daily backup now to ensure all is kept safe now.
At least your back up again. That’s the main thing, and even though you’ve lost a couple of days of data, that’s better than having to start from scratch.
Ouch! Glad to see that things are up again.
You should ask your host if anything like this is happening to any of the other sites on the same box.
@Gabe – thanks man, will ask and see what they say.
Glad you solve the problem…. =)
That’s very sad! BTW.. Which hosting are you using?
Shift to some reliable host like HostGator, so that these problems doesn’t occur in future.
Thank god! Now its UP
Chethan´s last blog ..How to Protect your email id in public pages from Spam?
Wish you don’t get it again. That is really very bad situation. I faced it twice this year but my host fixed it very fast. I don’t want to face it again.
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that is scary ..Good thing you had multiple backups.
Tycoon Blogger´s last blog ..Recent wordpress plugins that I installed
Unfortunately, things like this happens to almost every blogger. My blog was once down for three straight days! Good thing it was less than a week old. During that time, it’s a lot easier to “experiment” without suffering much damage.
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I think you should move from IXWebhosting. Your blog is getting good traffic and you have good readers too..try out some premium host like Dreamhost or Bluehost. I think as you are already earning giving services to others, you can afford a Private server or at least a VPS.
Rohit Sane´s last blog ..How to Make your Blog/Website more User-Friendly?
@Rohit – thanks for the feedback, will see what I can come up with and what works for me.
Do please let us know if you succeed in finding the cause of the missing tables in your database. By the way did you install intense debates or the likes. I hear rumors that they sometimes cause problems like you’re currently experiencing.
Udegbunam Chukwudi´s last blog ..Facebook Naira Free Report Analysis
@Udegbunam Chukwudi – I did not install intense debates, only heard of it now from your comment.
Good to see you are up again. You reminded me to back up my database
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@Ricky – I guess we all learn from each other, lol.
So they “mysteryously” disappear just like that and you weren’t even doing anything to your blog? O_o That’s really scary.. I don’t want to imagine if that’s happening to my blog all of a sudden….
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@Michael – yes, I was not doing anything. Hope is well on your side, have not heard from you in a while.
Very scary. You’re lucky there was a ‘fairly recent’ backup. A few weeks ago, I installed WP on Doreo Host for a client. Also installed a WP plugin for backups: WP-DBManager. I did a manual backup to get things started and set it to take one daily [only 7 are retained, but that's in addition to the automatic host backup]. However, when checking the name of the plugin for you, I found it is NOT taking daily backup… funny. I did another manual backup and will now have to look into this. Getting paranoid, I need to check the host backup too… lol.
SBA´s last blog ..Poll: Why Use CSS-Html-Php Code?
@SBA – with WP-DBManager, there is an option of when the backup must be made and optimized. You can go to ‘DB Options’ and look at the bottom by ‘Automatic Scheduling’. All can be set there, let me know if you don’t come right.
Yes I had it set for automatic but noticed the date never changed, even when I did the manual the date for the next backup stayed at the wrong time! so I found some code changes that take your backup timing options into consideration when doing the manual. Then if you do another manual the automatic date changes. The original code is supposed to work in WP 2.9.1 which I have, but maybe because I had 2.9, installed the backup plugin then upgraded to 2.9.1?
Anyway it seems to be okay now that I updated the plugin’s php.
SBA´s last blog ..Poll: Why Use CSS-Html-Php Code?
I had the same experience with dat plug-in a few days back. It suddenly stopped backing up my database. Anyway I went back to AUTOMATIC SCHEDULING and rescheduled it and it working again
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See my reply above. Maybe you did a manual backup with messed up the automatic? You may want to check that you have this code in the
wp-dbmanager.php: (the missing piece in mine was the “+$backup_options['backup_period']” and “+$backup_options['optimize_period']”
SBA´s last blog ..Poll: Why Use CSS-Html-Php Code?
I totally understand your feeling. My site also got hacked last week by hacker. The hacker put in malicious folder and changed wordpress password. I don’t have idea how the hacker can hack into it. I think everyone should be more careful and do backup more frequently.
Lee | Money4Invest´s last blog ..February Calendar 2010 | Calender 1600×1200 Wallpaper
@Lee – yes, we have to be careful and BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP and BACKUP.