abletec

I was beginning to think it might’ve been something like that. Thanks, @ipstenu.

Paula, also, please go to ‘Settings > General’ in your WordPress dashboard & tell us both your site url & your WordPress address.

Hi PaulaO. If you’ve been hacked, then 1 thing you need to do & do it yesterday is to change your control panel, WordPress dashboard, & WordPress database passwords to something complex. This article
http://www.brighter-vision.com/protect-yourself-with-passwords-or-pay
might prove helpful in that regard. There are also a gazillion other resources regarding passwords–that 1 was just mentioned because I happen to know the url by heart– but, in order to prevent the bad guys from getting back in, it’s an extraordinarily important first line of defense.

Is this a single or multisite installation? 1 thing it sounds like is that you may have chosen a secure (https) install when in fact you don’t have an SSL certificate. That’ll make things blow up pretty spectacularly. If you don’t have one, then you need to choose the http protocol. Perhaps also try renaming your wp-config.php by appending a 1 on the end, ie, wp-config.ph1 & see if the install won’t run.

Please note also that sometimes the database can get hacked as well. I do suggest that you consider looking at your database using a text editor for words like:

<script
<? php;
base64;
eval 

preg_replace
strrev

This is not an exhaustive list, & the presence of those words are not definitive proof of a compromise, though some are more suggestive than others. I also recommend that you paste your .htaccess file for us to look at to ensure there are no backdoors hidden there where the bad actors can re-enter your site.

If this all sounds entirely too overwhelming (though you seem to be pretty savvy regarding all this) there is a place to hire a professional at http://jobs.wordpress.net. Most site owners are under the mistaken impression that once they’ve removed the evidence of the hack, the problem is resolved. The truth is that the vast majority of criminals leave backdoors where they can reenter & regain control of the site, & if that isn’t fixed, all your hard work blows up in mere seconds once the bad actors take control again.

Good luck. Keep in touch.

Hello again, digitalc2. Could you please tell us whether this is a single or multisite installation?

Using your host’s file manager or an FTP (hopefully secure FTP) client, please browse your installation & see if there are any files called error_log or error.log. Please paste entries, if they exist, in your next reply.

Please also open your wp-config.php file using methods mentioned previously & change wp_debug from ‘false’ to ‘true’. Then log into your site & see if error messages are displayed. Again, please paste these into your next reply. This poses a serious security risk, so please change it back to ‘false’ immediately once you’re done.

Next, please look at your hosting provider’s control panel & see if there is an aplet for viewing your server error logs. If there are entries, please copy-&-paste them here as well.

Whereas I host websites, all my hosting is done using Linux, so, unfortunately, while I know a fair bit about hosting & the problems site owners can encounter, my knowledge is pretty much only limited to Linux. So I’m not entirely sure how helpful I can be when it comes to Windows hosting.

Hello djiock, & welcome. The first place to look is in your server logs to see what, if any, errors the site is throwing. Given what you’re saying, I suspect there are plenty, &, if I were a betting lady, which I’m not, both because I hate losing money & because I don’t have any to lose, I’d bet you have a permissions/ownership problem. Specifically, your WordPress files should be owned & writeable by the webserver user.

If you’re still having trouble, please paste error log entries in your next reply, & we can have a look.

PHP 5.4 has been end-of-life for some time now. I just recently migrated a site to v. 7 & performance seems to have increased markedly. Please keep us updated, & please mark the topic ‘resolved’ when you feel it is. That way, the volunteers can go on to help others who need it.

Best of luck w/your site.

Abe please look to your hosting provider’s control panel & see if they have an aplet where you can select PHP version. You’ll want at least 5.6. Also, if there is a place where you can change PHP settings–usually in the same aplet as the one where you change PHP version, make sure your memory is at least 128M.

I’d ftp up a new copy of WordPress to ensure all files are present. The actual content is located in the database as opposed to the files. You can backup your database in PhpMyAdmin. Let us know if you have questions as to how to do that.

Lastly, in order to rule out a hosting issue, I am willing to offer you some space on my server to see if the problems resolve. My profile contains my website, in the event that option is of interest. I’ve offered this before to folks having difficult issues, & when they accept it & stuff resolves, it gives a lot of power to the site owner who can go back to their hosting provider w/that info, at which point the host can choose to help, or, if not, the site owner can bail.

I need to warn you, though, that this might take me longer than normal, as I recently broke my wrist, & using the computer is pretty slow & painful. My forum replies have also been abbreviated because of it.

Abe, please ask your host to enable use of xmlrpc.php. & what is this /home/petersen/public_html/abcbfirstaid.ca/xmlrpc.php. Is this a single or multisite install?

Please change wp_debug to false now.