abletec

carnifex08, you can use the Interconnect it tool either from the command line or in your web browser. It sounds to me that either you don’t have PHP enabled in your localhost install or that it’s not on your path.

To use it in your browser, simply invoke it like http://localhost/wordpress-folder/search-replace-folder-name. I use Xampp, my WordPress is installed in a folder named htdocs\wordpress. My Search-Replace is under a folder called srdb in the htdocs folder. So I would invoke it as:
http://localhost/srdb The interface is pretty straightforward.

To invoke wp-cli is a bit more tricky. In windows, it involves making a batch file in your favorite text editor (make sure it’s not a word processor) & name it wp.bat. Make certain it doesn’t have a .bat.txt extension, as Notepad is notorious for adding the .txt extension on if you forget to go to the ‘files of type’ part of the dialog box when saving a file. Here’s what mine looks like.
@echo OFF
d:\xampp\php\php wp-cli.phar %*
& it’s run from the wordpress folder.

Let us know if you have additional questions, & welcome to the WordPress web developer community.

Hello, carnifex08, & welcome. Yeah, this is *always* fun times when stuff like this happens (not!!!).

The first thing which you should likely do is to replace the url’s in your database. There are a couple tools you can use to do this. The first is the ever-popular wp-cli, available at:
https://wp-cli.org/

A 2nd tool is Search-replace by Interconnect It, available from:
https://github.com/interconnectit/Search-Replace-DB/archive/master.zip

either tool should help. You should likely back up your database, just in case you screw the search-&-replace up. That way, you can go back to a known, albeit not actually good, copy. Because the database contains something called “serialized data”, you do need a specialized tool to do a search & replace.

Your other option is to export your posts. You can use the WordPress Importer plugin to do that, &, indeed, WP-Cli requires it to be in place, while the Interconnect It tool does not. This exports files to .xml, on which a search-&-replace using standard text editing tools can be performed. Don’t use a word processor on this–use something like Notepad, etc. The disadvantage of this method is that other tables besides posts & postmeta will not be affected.

Good luck. This is almost always a hassle.

So you’re telling me that the 2 wp-config.php files have the same hostname, is that correct?

You have a different database name & username for both gsnetworks & newwp, right?

1 weird thing I’ve found is that sometimes when I create a user for a database, I have to go back in & “change” the password in the control panel (even though it wasn’t wrong, save the changes, & then the database connection works. Please do not ask me why. It’s just 1 of those inexplicable things. You might try it.

So basically, public_html is gsnetworks.ca. gsnetworks.ca/wp-admin is the dashboard of your primary website. Do not disable, please. Pretty please.

When I go to gsnetworks/newwp/wp-admin it gives me the following:
“Error establishing a database connection
This either means that the username and password information in your wp-config.php file is incorrect or we can’t contact the database server at sql5c9b.megasqlservers.com. This could mean your host’s database server is down.
• Are you sure you have the correct username and password?
• Are you sure that you have typed the correct hostname?
• Are you sure that the database server is running?
If you’re unsure what these terms mean you should probably contact your host. If you still need help you can always visit the WordPress Support Forums.”

So I am assuming you went to public_html/newwp/wp-config & entered the values for the database you created into that file. Next, what does your control panel say about database hostname?

No. Just type http://www.gsnetworks.ca/newwp/wp-admin
after you’ve gotten the database details correct, of course.

When I realized I’d been stupid (or, perhaps more accurately), tired enough that I’d replied to the email instead of to the post, I went over to the forum & replied that way. I thought the email would end up in someone’s cyberbin somewhere, because it said it was a “noreply” address, which usually means if you do reply there, it’s forever lost in cyberspace.

Trace your server down the folder tree. So if you installed WordPress to a folder called wordpress, then the way to get into the dashboard is:
http://www.gsnetworks.ca/wordpress/wp-admin. gsnetworks is the top level. The lowest is wp-admin. Insert any folders you used there in between, & you’re golden. The newwp install is still getting a database error, so I assume you chose not to change the wp-config.php file in its folder to reflect the new database you created.

My son & grandson arrived here from TX today, so I will be in & out (& mostly out), for the next several days, as our Thanksgiving holiday is Thursday here in the States. But I will try to help as I’m able.

Ron, interestingly, I basically had to do for this compromised site what I’m suggesting you do here. Maybe print this out & use this as a checklist. I even put little circles where you can put a checkmark :).
() Create a new database, user, & password.
() Make certain the user was added to the database & had all privileges.
() Copy the database name, user name, & password down for later.
() Run the ‘Export’ tool (‘Tools > Export’) on the old site & saved the file to your computer. I suggest leaving all defaults regarding the Export tool as they are.
() Open the new wp-config.php & enter the new values.
() Runn the ‘Import’ tool on the new site (‘Tools > Import’).
() Copy the uploads folder over.

At this point I installed a plugin called “Add from Server” & imported the files into the media library. You may wish to do likewise.

It sounds a lot quicker than it is, but those are the basic steps. The biggest hassle was the media library import, which actually isn’t strictly necessary, although it is helpful. At this point the site is fully functional. Installation of a security plugin & any other plugins you require for your functionality tops off the work.

See if that’s sufficient guidance to point you in the right direction.

Capt. Ron, do you know how to log into your hosting provider’s control panel?