Since coming back from vacation, it’s turned out to be rough times for mikull.com. For my most geek readers and concerned friends, sit a spell and I’ll tell you a story. Several readers noted that mikull.com had some downtime while I was away, but by the time I actually logged in and checked everything out, it was seemingly all up an running. I wrote this off as ‘not my server’ and dismissed the problem. Then I noticed that all new updates since July/August outside of my SQL databases appeared to be missing. I was alarmed, and went to work. ProfeC lent a hand in running the backup gauntlet with me, but to no avail. Paranoid of a potential security issue, I turned to the TotalChoice Help Desk for support…

I was away on vacation (out of the country) since last Saturday, October 14. I returned today, and found many of the files and some directories either empty or deleted.

I am the only one with access to my server. I need help in restoring my files, and finding out what happened. I am very nervous that my site was hacked.

The SQL databases seem fine, just the files on the server appear to have been affected. I looked at the weekly backup through cPanel, but did not see the recent data I was hoping to find. Please help!

I learned that while I was away, TotalChoice had been migrating my server (contents) to another, as there were problems and performance issues with the old. This was good news- we always like mikull.com running fast. But there also appeared to be bad news in the ticket reply I received:

Sorry for the inconvenience.

We had migrated the old server20 to the brand new robust server320 on last week after finding some issues with the disk on server20. We have tried our maximum to get the most recent backups from the infected disk. So, there is a possibility in losing some recent updates of the accounts. However, we had managed to restore the up to date database and email folders for all the accounts.

If you have a copy of any more recent backup, we can restore the files from the backup.

So, it is not a kind of hacking or any security threat, but just a migration of the old server to new server.
Thank you for choosing TotalChoiceHosting.

So not a hacking attempt, but not exactly what I wanted to hear. More recent? Arg! All the new mikull.com coding and design I had been working on was missing- I pushed the ticket, and to make a crazy afternoon sound short, the fine techs were able to get on that old server and copy over all that missing content. Ah, all was right with the world thanks to level 2 support. That is, until tonight.

I was set to continue working on the new face for mikull.com this evening, when I encountered terribly strange errors in my WordPress admin presentation areas. All the themes simply conked out. Since the noted server migration, I did have to update a few SQL names and settings here and there- so I attributed these new errors to the same line of thinking.

Except I couldn’t repair them, and although WordPress is behaving on the surface, the inside is not as fun. Spent a couple of hours with Google and the WordPress support forums - archives, backups, restores, installs, new installs, permissions, cache- I learned a bit more about WordPress, but couldn’t find the answer to my problem. Finally I dug deep into the TotalChoice support forums, and with unrewarding relief discovered I was not alone. And so, this ticket goes in sweet readers:

I am having the WordPress ’style sheet missing’ problem with my blogs. This problem seems to be well noted and documented in the following threads in the family forums:

www.totalchoicehosting.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=29929
www.totalchoicehosting.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=29949
www.totalchoicehosting.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=29941

I had tried editing permissions, fresh installs, WordPress support forums- you name it. I am fairly confident I am experiencing the same bug as noted in those threads. The solution seems to be a server move - unrelated, but I was recently moved from server 20 for other issues (please note my most recent closed help desk tickets) - and I am a little sensitive about data loss and server performance now. Please help.

Until this is resolved, mikull.com is closing the comments and boards. I have archived what I could and now hope for the best. Updates to follow… PS, NotRon- this killed my CSS time for you tonight. Tomorrow, I promise.

Filed under: Geek, Web Development