Hotshot
10-24-07, 10:12 AM
I must say I never EVER expected to have issues with this, but that's not the point. Let's get straight to that.
I get on the campus computer this morning and as per usual, check my forums at http://www.clangis.com/forums. I get a classy generalized "IPS driver error", telling me there's a problem with the database. Seeing as it was working a couple of hours ago when I was at home and I didn't touch anything, I knew there were two possabilities - either someone other than me messed with it (read: incredibly unlikely), or something was wrong at powweb. The first one I investigated (you guessed it, and it's nothing personal) was powweb.
First, I check all my emails - nothing seems to be wrong either with powweb or with my forum software or license (Invision Power Board). Then I log into powweb ops, move over to the MySQL management tab and click 'administer' on the appropriate database and username. For the first time ever, I get a 'enter password' prompt. I figure "no big deal", enter the password, but it simply refreshes the page. After a few tries I realize that entering what I have always used as a password wasn't going to get me anywhere ("maybe they changed the mysql db passwords like that one time they did with ops passwords when I didn't have access to my registered email - good times"), so I click the 'change password' button back on the general MySQL control pannel, and this is where it starts to get juicy!
I enter a new password, enter it again (there's no 'enter old password' prompt since you're already in ops, which is why I figured this would work even if the password was changed), and it gives me a '500 Error - The page you requested no longer exists or is temporarily unavailable.' I try it twice more, and same result. Undaunted, I decide to create a new admin account for the MySQL database. I enter a username 'omglolwtf', matching passwords, and get a 'page cannot be displayed' error.
Since it no longer seems to be in my physical power to do anything, and I have no desire at attempting to talk to the chat support who seem to have a list of copy/paste responses and no technical knowladge (boy does that feel a lot like outsourcing), I decided I'd post about it on the forums.
Sorry for my cynicism, but obviously this wasn't how I wanted to start off my morning. :p
edit: creating a new user finally worked (I guess it was a temporary issue), the site is also working now, which also makes some sense since I've been brought up thinking that MySQL issues sometimes just 'pop up' with IPB and/or shared hosting and go away soon enough on their own, but I still can't administer the database with my original sql user because it asks for a password and entering the right password doesn't seem to be working.
update before another edit: the password changer managed to work, and I changed the password to what it already should have been, and now it lets me administer the database just fine. If this post has no other point now, could someone at least tell me what might have been going on, and if I should count on this sort of thing happening in the future, and perhaps how often. I've been with powweb for almost two years, and I guess it's alright for a shared hosting plan, but I expect this may be my last year here and I'll be moving to a VPS unless I change my mind.
I get on the campus computer this morning and as per usual, check my forums at http://www.clangis.com/forums. I get a classy generalized "IPS driver error", telling me there's a problem with the database. Seeing as it was working a couple of hours ago when I was at home and I didn't touch anything, I knew there were two possabilities - either someone other than me messed with it (read: incredibly unlikely), or something was wrong at powweb. The first one I investigated (you guessed it, and it's nothing personal) was powweb.
First, I check all my emails - nothing seems to be wrong either with powweb or with my forum software or license (Invision Power Board). Then I log into powweb ops, move over to the MySQL management tab and click 'administer' on the appropriate database and username. For the first time ever, I get a 'enter password' prompt. I figure "no big deal", enter the password, but it simply refreshes the page. After a few tries I realize that entering what I have always used as a password wasn't going to get me anywhere ("maybe they changed the mysql db passwords like that one time they did with ops passwords when I didn't have access to my registered email - good times"), so I click the 'change password' button back on the general MySQL control pannel, and this is where it starts to get juicy!
I enter a new password, enter it again (there's no 'enter old password' prompt since you're already in ops, which is why I figured this would work even if the password was changed), and it gives me a '500 Error - The page you requested no longer exists or is temporarily unavailable.' I try it twice more, and same result. Undaunted, I decide to create a new admin account for the MySQL database. I enter a username 'omglolwtf', matching passwords, and get a 'page cannot be displayed' error.
Since it no longer seems to be in my physical power to do anything, and I have no desire at attempting to talk to the chat support who seem to have a list of copy/paste responses and no technical knowladge (boy does that feel a lot like outsourcing), I decided I'd post about it on the forums.
Sorry for my cynicism, but obviously this wasn't how I wanted to start off my morning. :p
edit: creating a new user finally worked (I guess it was a temporary issue), the site is also working now, which also makes some sense since I've been brought up thinking that MySQL issues sometimes just 'pop up' with IPB and/or shared hosting and go away soon enough on their own, but I still can't administer the database with my original sql user because it asks for a password and entering the right password doesn't seem to be working.
update before another edit: the password changer managed to work, and I changed the password to what it already should have been, and now it lets me administer the database just fine. If this post has no other point now, could someone at least tell me what might have been going on, and if I should count on this sort of thing happening in the future, and perhaps how often. I've been with powweb for almost two years, and I guess it's alright for a shared hosting plan, but I expect this may be my last year here and I'll be moving to a VPS unless I change my mind.