Error establishing a database connection – help?

  • Installed WordPress on a site hosted by Earthlink years back. I have a Mac 10.4 desktop and originally used iWeb but the jpeg images didn’t show up on the Earthlink hosted site which used Microsoft. Then I installed WordPress and it worked like a charm. I could never get the hang of the Earthlink control room but it seemed with WordPress I didn’t need to know anything – except I didnt know about backups or updating. Now Earthlink has updated some stuff and I have trouble loading or viewing anything on my blog most of the time.

    In the Earthlink Web-hosting control room it looks like the database is ther, but their help said “you are using custom WordPress installation that we unfortunately do not support” Aargh. On my own.

    Finally got to view a wordpress page on my blog just now and then the WordPress login window and when I tried logging in I got this message:

    “WordPress

    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 sql5c38a.carrierzone.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”

    Anybody have suggestions for how I can get my WordPress blog to be accessible again in layman’s language?

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  • Some hosts will have the information somewhere on your control panel.

    Are you sure you have the correct username and password?

    This is the username and password you use to sign in to the database. It may or may not be the username/password you use to sign in to the control panel.

    Is there a lot of data you want to still use? Your version of wp is so old you should start afresh.

    Thread Starter Panty Buns

    (@panty-buns)

    Yes, I agree it would be much better if I upgraded but I’ve put a lot of time and research into many of the posts and pages I’ve written on that blog about U.S. censorship, free press, net neutrality, banking and many more issues. It would be a shame to lose it all which is why I don’t start from scratch. I also liked the old WordPress blog very much and the way it was working until recently. I don’t feel competent to do all the complicated saving and upgrades etc. even though I read about it here in the Forums.

    Thanks for the tip about the different passwords. I do know them but to me Earthlink’s control panel doesn’t seem very compatible with the MAC OS. I wasted weeks to months with their older version before finding WordPress in the first place. Thank you for your reply. Apparently my I.S.P. won’t help saying it’s a WordPress problem and “We have now closed the ticket with regards to this issue.” Thanks again.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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