Alert for OpenHost customers

If you are a WordPress customer of OpenHost (www.openhost.co.nz) read on:

OpenHost have ramped up the security of their servers (not sure if it’s Linux, Windows or both, but this issue affected a Linux plan) so that you are no longer able to import a WXR XML file.

Due to some SQL weirdness, whereby another no longer used installation of WP was deleted, resulting in the main installation falling over (wtf?), I had to recreate the main installation and import my WXR file. The import failed due to not being able to write to the disk. On contacting OpenHost, they told me about the security change and even though I explained the problem and that it was preventing normal operation for WordPress users, they were adamant that they were not going to modify the security. A rather bizarre attitude that left me with one option: move.

I’ve therefore moved my personal business to a more WordPress-friendly provider (justhost.com) and my commercial business will soon follow.

So, if you back up your blog using the Export tool in WordPress, be aware that you won’t be able to import it again…