I’ve written previously about switching to Bluehost. I’d like to expand on that since I’m still dealing with the switch (2 months later). The reasons that I switched were simple: 1. I was frustrated that HostGator wouldn’t update MySQL to a version that hadn’t been deprecated, 2. I would get more space, and 3. my bill would be lower. I selected Bluehost as they had a really good reputation and had been recommended by a friend.
Bluehost has a service where they will move your files from your current host to their platform. I utilized this service. I would not do so again.
The first issue was with the temporary URL’s that are created when moving the websites. This also led to some SSL issues. Generally, utilizing chat, I was able to get those resolved and corrected. I still had to clean up some temporary directories through Cpanel.
The really big issue was when I went to check updates page within the WordPress Admin panel and was met with an error page. Hm. I’ve never had trouble with this before. I hit up their chat. (I had found their chat pretty useful in solving some issues.) Chat went in and stated that they had updated permissions and everything would be set in a bit. (Queue ominous music). It wasn’t. I did some digging and some research. I even used Gemini to check a few things. Gemini correctly stated that there was some malicious code in place. I check with Bluehost’s chat, and the best that they could do was to recommend a service that they sell at $84 per domain. Now, I have six domains that I moved. The previous install didn’t have this issue. I can’t say that Bluehost transfer is where the malicious code was injected, I can just say that the code wasn’t there on the old site and was present in Bluest.
I decided that I could fix this myself. The malicious code injected a ton of htaccess files. So, I spent several hours going through directories and removing or editing those htaccess files. Again, after several hours, I had deleted or edited all the htaccess files. Things were once again clean. However, I did have to spend several hours working on this. (Naturally, I also may have deleted a file or two that I shouldn’t have in the process. It was “mindless” work largely. So, I also had to fix a few directories and reinstall some things.) I did spend a fair bit of time reading htaccess files. Though for the most part, it was just deleting them (I knew that there shouldn’t be an htaccess file in that directory, plus the size and date were indicators).
Since I was working on making the websites actually work, I haven’t been able to post much. It’s funny how much cognitive bandwidth that kind of remediation takes. I was worried about whether or not I had removed everything and removed it correctly. I had had some plans to write about a variety of things impacting education, but those will have to wait. I think that I have all the sites back to “normal”. Or at least almost. There are still a couple of niggling issues that I want to address (like login screens). Most need some updating and refreshing, so I’ll start work on that at some point in the future.
The Bluehost created temporary URL’s for the transition seem to be deleted finally.
I had hoped for a good bit more of photography time, but sometimes life hands you a different plan.
