Knowledgebase

In an effort to become compliant with the latest security bulletins and to support our ongoing effort to provide the most reliable hosting experience possible, we have upgraded MySQL, Apache, and PHP on all Shared Hosting servers.

How this update affects you?

Web developers and template application users (Joomla, WordPress, Drupal, etc.) are responsible for keeping their software, scripts, and websites up to date. PHP is consistently evolving, therefore we ask that you keep your PHP coding up to date and secured against known exploits. A comprehensive list of popular exploits can be found at https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Category%3aOWASP_Top_Ten_Project

When PHP is updated from one version to another a website can become instantly obsolete or even go OFFLINE! As a pre-caution we emailed all clients weeks in advanced about the updates. If you didn’t receive a notification please check your spam folder, or confirm that your correct email address is on file in your account details with MidPhase.
Website does not load after Update!

Please read the complete article and ensure that you are not attempting to use deprecated functions and confirm your PHP, php.ini, .htaccess code/syntax is up to date.

What is PHP?

PHP is a server-side scripting language designed for web development but also used as a general-purpose programming language.  PHP is used to add functionality to websites by making websites dynamic, efficient and database driven. PHP can interact with MySQL databases - And in doing this, you can do such things as write users information to a database and vice versa. This allows you to create pages on the fly using the contents of the database.

PHP has been upgraded from 5.3.26 to version 5.4.24. If your site or applications implement PHP functions that are incompatible with PHP 5.4.x, there is a helpful 5.3.x to 5.4.x migration guide located here:

http://php.net/manual/en/migration54.php

What is MySQL?

MySQL officially, is (as of July 2013) the world's second most widely used open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) which uses Structured Query Language (SQL). MySQL is a popular choice of database for use in web applications, and is a central component of the widely used LAMP Stack (open source web application software stack). LAMP is an acronym for "Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP/Python." Free-software-open source projects that require a full-featured database management system often use MySQL.
SQL is the most popular language for working with, managing, and creating dynamic content in a database. MySQL is an essential part of operation in open source PHP applications. It is powerful and efficient in processing data, highly reliable, and most importantly very flexible.

MySQL has been upgraded from 5.1.72 to version 5.5.34.  These upgrades provide better performance and additional features.  Further information on the new version can be found at the links below:

MySQL - http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/upgrading-from-previous-series.html

What is Apache?

The Apache HTTP Server commonly referred to as Apache, is a web server application and by far the most popular Web server software. Apache can host static websites, as well as dynamic websites that use server-side scripting languages, such as PHP, Python, or Perl. Apache also supports modules, which offer advanced security options, file management tools, and other features. Most Apache installations include a URL rewriting module called "mod_rewrite," which has become a common way for webmasters to create custom URLs via .htaccess.
Basically apache is what runs websites and web services on the Shared Hosting server.

Apache has been upgraded from 2.2.24 to version 2.4.7.  These upgrades provide better performance and additional features.  Further information on the new version can be found at the links below:

Apache - http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/new_features_2_4.html