Website Intermittently Down Inexplicably

  • Update as I’m working through this: My symptoms happen with no files except an index in the site folder, and no database connection. That only leaves hosting! I’ll keep you updated on getting it resolved.

    I have a WordPress site that is intermittently down for seemingly no reason. Anywhere from every 30 seconds to 4 minutes it will go down for about 30-90 seconds at a time. Usually, you will just get a “No data received” error in the browser from both the front-end and the backend. Every once and a while you’ll see a “error establishing database connection” error, but not frequently.

    The obvious culprit is hosting, right? Well, wrong in this case. I have this site hosted with about 40 other WordPress sites on the same shared server. Not one of them has ever had this problem (this one has had it for months).

    Plugins, theme? Not likely. I just did a clean install of WordPress. Deleted almost every file except backups and files from a twentyeleven child theme, and reinstalled WordPress from scratch. I hadn’t even installed any plugins yet or selected my theme, and the site was still doing the exact same thing.

    Domain is registered at Godaddy (my host) and hosted there as well, and configured exactly the same as my other domains with WordPress sites that have no issues. Nameservers are controlled by Godaddy as well.

    I have a lot of WordPress experience and am pretty good at troubleshooting, and I can’t for the life of me figure this out. The only things left, in my mind, that can’t necessarily be eliminated as possibilities yet are:

    1. Something is wrong with the hosting itself. Removing, and then re-adding the domain in my hosting may fix.
    2. There is something in the database causing problems. I’m not sure how the database could bring the whole site down periodically, but it’s possible. (The site does the same thing, though, when not even connected to a database at all)
    3. The child theme files are causing issues, even though that theme wasn’t even active. (Or was it? I suppose if I imported the database it would keep the active theme… But there are very few functions in that theme, so it would seem weird.)
    4. Other. Maybe my IP is somehow being blocked, by the hosting, from just this one IP address, and it’s intermittent. I don’t buy this though, as others have reported the same issue.

    My money is on either the hosting or the child theme files. Deleting those files, and leaving the install detached from any database to help rule things out right now. Update as I’m writing: Even with no database specified, and literally no files in the entire folder except index.php, the same thing happens. Sounds like it’s #1!

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

  • Brother Godaddy is very famous but honestly my personal experience was very bad and I had the same kind of problems where my wordpress site was very slow and also these site down problems were there. May they have too much load as everybody is rughing towards Godaddy and may be their servers are over flown with data ….

    You can discuss this with your hosting and secondly try to do everything from scratch or try to create another subdomain on your server with another fresh wordpress installation … if the problem is there with that site also then it is definately your hosting that is causing the problem.

    I hope this helps … thanks

    Thread Starter brianjohnsondesign

    (@brianjohnsondesign)

    Update: I deleted EVERYTHING, including the root folder for that domain. I removed the domain completely from my hosting. I then made a new folder and re-added the domain to the hosting account. Reinstalled WordPress, without including any of the files from the previous install, including theme and plugin files. Same issue.

    I’m at a loss! I really don’t know what to do. I’ll talk to hosting support I guess, but I’m not sure what they are going to do… What a pain!

    you don’t worry you have purchased the hosting and it is their responsibility to provide full support and uninterrupted service. please discuss with them … I hope your problem is solved …

    Thread Starter brianjohnsondesign

    (@brianjohnsondesign)

    They were not so helpful! I have, however, gotten some error logs that might give some insight. Any ideas based on this? These same errors just repeat:

    [Tue Apr 07 21:45:20 2015] [9366652] [fcgid:warn] [client 75.72.194.xxx:55845] mod_fcgid: stderr: WordPress database error Table 'DatabaseName.wp_spec_comment_log' doesn't exist for query SELECT * FROM wp_spec_comment_log WHERE post_id = 107 AND ( date > '2015-04-08 00:25:11' ) OR ( date = '2015-04-08 00:25:11' AND id > 0 ) ORDER BY id ASC LIMIT 10; made by require('wp-blog-header.php'), require_once('wp-load.php'), require_once('wp-config.php'), require_once('wp-settings.php'), do_action('init'), call_user_func_array, spec_commenting->_init, spectacula_ajax->spectacula_ajax, call_user_func, spectacula_ajax->get_comment_changes, spectacula_ajax->grab_changedcomments_json, spec_comment_log->find, referer https://www.mydomain.com/classes/
[Tue Apr 07 21:45:24 2015] [9366652] [fcgid:warn] [client 75.72.194.xxx:55845] mod_fcgid: stderr: WordPress database error Table 'DatabaseName.wp_wfConfig' doesn't exist for query select val from wp_wfConfig where name='disableConfigCaching' made by require('wp-blog-header.php'), require_once('wp-load.php'), require_once('wp-config.php'), require_once('wp-settings.php'), include_once('/plugins/wordfence/wordfence.php'), wordfence::install_actions, wfCache::setupCaching, wfConfig::get, wfDB->querySingle, referer https://www.mydomain.com/parent-portal/
[Tue Apr 07 21:45:24 2015] [9366652] [fcgid:warn] [client 75.72.194.xxx:55845] mod_fcgid: stderr: WordPress database error Table 'DatabaseName.wp_wfBlocksAdv' doesn't exist for query select id, blockType, blockString from wp_wfBlocksAdv made by require('wp-blog-header.php'), require_once('wp-load.php'), require_once('wp-config.php'), require_once('wp-settings.php'), do_action('plugins_loaded'), call_user_func_array, wordfence::veryFirstAction, wfLog->firewallBadIPs, wfDB->querySelect, referer https://www.mydomain.com/parent-portal/
[Tue Apr 07 21:45:24 2015] [9366652] [fcgid:warn] [client 75.72.194.xxx:55845] mod_fcgid: stderr: WordPress database error Table 'DatabaseName.wp_wfBlocks' doesn't exist for query select blockedTime, reason from wp_wfBlocks where IP='1263059618' and (permanent=1 OR (blockedTime + '300' > unix_timestamp())) made by require('wp-blog-header.php'), require_once('wp-load.php'), require_once('wp-config.php'), require_once('wp-settings.php'), do_action('plugins_loaded'), call_user_func_array, wordfence::veryFirstAction, wfLog->firewallBadIPs, wfDB->querySingleRec, referer https://www.mydomain.com/parent-portal/
[Tue Apr 07 21:45:24 2015] [9366652] [fcgid:warn] [client 75.72.194.xxx:55845] mod_fcgid: stderr: WordPress database error Table 'DatabaseName.wp_users' doesn't exist for query SELECT * FROM wp_users WHERE user_login = 'wpusername' made by require('wp-blog-header.php'), require_once('wp-load.php'), require_once('wp-config.php'), require_once('wp-settings.php'), WP->init, wp_get_current_user, get_currentuserinfo, apply_filters('determine_current_user'), call_user_func_array, wp_validate_logged_in_cookie, wp_validate_auth_cookie, get_user_by, WP_User::get_data_by, referer https://www.mydomain.com/parent-portal/

    I’m having a very similar issue. The site is down…new install, new theme, fresh plugins, and I’ve tried rolling it back, only to have it stuck in “Updating account. This can take up to 2 minutes.” for frickin ever. Like going on 2 days now. Already filed an incident report with GD… and, some of the techs are very helpful, some arent… it’s about 40% 60%, find me another host that’s better, and I’ll go with them… surrrusllly…

    Brian, did you delete some of your tables?? are you using any security pluigns that would modify your database name?… thinkin’…

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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