Installing Wordpress on PlusNet - Revisited

[#1]

Hi folks,

I rang the CS desk and they say ccgi is no longer supported and so they can't give help on ths topic.  I did a bit of digging and found these two topics

2010 Instructions

https://community.plus.net/t5/Everything-else/Setup-guides-for-Joomla-or-Wordpress/m-p/709517

2017 Instructions

https://community.plus.net/t5/Everything-else/Installing-Wordpress-on-PlusNet/m-p/1419390

But I wanted to know if there is an up to date guide.

I diid check and I can sign into my ccgi page and can see mysql and php (although php is 7.2 or 7.3)

Am I installing a full WP (as I would do on a vm or docker) or just a subset of the folders like wp-content (so not wp-admin)?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[#2]

@TonyOCL 

The links you provided are to what is now ancient history but I'm not aware of anything more recent. Perhaps it would be best to think of this task as starting again.

Whilst back in 2017 it was possible to use PHP Manager to change the version of the Apache SAPI and PHP, from a brief review of that linked topic it looks like doing so - even trying to revert to the default - would cause a 500 Internal Server error  It's not clear if you have made changes using PHP Manager which could cause this problem but the topic owner (stampy) had;  A Plusnet staff member provided the support needed to undo the problem but if needed now it would be a Do-It-Yourself effort.

So first question is have you used PHP Manager to change anything?

Installation would be a full WordPress install but to get to that stage depends on where things are now..

[#3]

I agree with your suggested approach.

I have not used phpmanager to change anything, but then maybe we can do a reset.

Here is what I did do.

1) download wordpress and unzipped it

2) uploaded it to my folder /public/wordpress

3) I set permissions to 755  (I can delete these later)

Then I tried executing any of my wordpress .php (including setup) but got just an error.

It really looks like php isnt running.

Any suggestions ?  I bet even if I create a new folder put a hello world php file in there and set it to 777 it still won't work.

Regards

Tony

[#4]

@TonyOCL 

Changing file permissions was a feature of the pre-2014 Plusnet ccgi server. With Hostopia the default file permissions are best left alone.

Most important is to ensure text file transfers from PC to server are done in ASCII mode, and non-text (eg image) files are transferred in binary mode. Many FTP programs cope with this automatically. There are also hidden files (with names starting with a dot/full stop) that need to be transferred.

Did you use an FTP program? If so which one and does it handle hidden files?

I note you left the wordpress directory with the default name /public/wordpress. WordPress suggest doing this (or choosing /public/blog) is good. However those choices increase the security risk from hackers who build defaults into their scripts. I recommend changing the name.

[#5]

Hi David,

I used FileZilla and think it is quite good.  

I understand the /public/wordpress - and can change this after I get this running.  (reinstall).

But I am still facing the problem where it isn't executing any php at all so I can't start the wordpress install.

Any suggestions?

Tony

[#6]

@TonyOCL 

Using FileZilla to FTP is fine; I use that.

Message #3 contains the text

Then I tried executing any of my wordpress .php (including setup) but got just an error.

It really looks like php isnt running.

What does "Just an error" mean? Was there any text (or a pop-up) with it?

General question. Do you have any CGI (.cgi) scripts on your site? Or make any use of Perl?

[#7]

I have not checked for CGI scripts, but even the basic index.php doesn't run and is located in the /public folder

the error is 

Not Found [CFN #0005]

try it at ccgi.ocluk.plus.com/index.php

I am stil at the stage where I have not run the wordpress setup.

Regards

Tony

[#8]

@TonyOCL 

Please could you use FileZilla to produce a list (including hidden . files) that are contained in the / folder? I expect there will be a .htaccess hidden file in there.

Is there also a .htaccess hidden file in /public?

Knowing the contents of these would help.

[#9]

Here are the contents

Root folder htaccess

Options +FollowSymLinks -MultiViews
# Turn mod_rewrite on
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^cgi-bin(/.*|)$ CGI-BIN$1 [L,NC]

Options +ExecCGI
AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .pl

Public Folder htaccess

# for PHP-CGI
AddHandler php-cgi .php
Action php-cgi /cgi-bin/php-cgi

# for php and securewebexchange
<IfDefine SSL>
AddHandler php-cgi .php
Action php-cgi https://secure50.securewebsession.eu/ccgi.ocluk.plus.com/cgi-bin/php-cgi
</IfDefine>

Hope that helps.

[#10]

Does a file /public/index.php exist? That error infers it doesn't. However /public/index.htm exists and my browser finds it..

[#11]

Yes that fle does exist.

The content is below, it looks like a basic plusnet default php file

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
<title>No webpages have been uploaded to this address yet</title>
<style type="text/css">
html{ background:#fff; background:-moz-linear-gradient(top, #fff 0%,#f7f8f9 100%) fixed; background:-webkit-gradient(linear,left top,left bottom,color-stop(0%,#fff),color-stop(100%,#f7f8f9)) fixed; background:-webkit-linear-gradient(top, #fff 0%,#f7f8f9 100%); background:-o-linear-gradient(top, #fff 0%,#f7f8f9 100%) fixed; background:-ms-linear-gradient(top, #fff 0%,#f7f8f9 100%) fixed; background:linear-gradient(to bottom, #fff 0%,#f7f8f9 100%) fixed; filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#fff',endColorstr='#f7f8f9',GradientType=0 )}body{ margin:5em auto; width:680px; color:#676D70; text-align:center; font-size:62.5%; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; line-height:1.5} .logo{ margin-bottom:5em} h1{ margin:0.67em 0; font-weight:normal; font-size:2.4em} p{ margin:1em 0 10em; font-size:1.6em} a{ color:#C81E6E; text-decoration:underline; cursor:pointer} a:hover{color:#0397B5} .footer{ display:block; padding:12px 0; background:#676D70; color:#fff; font-size:1.4em}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<img src="img/plusnet-logo.png" alt="Plusnet - We'll do you proud" class="logo" height="190" width="241">
<h1>No webpages have been uploaded to this address yet</h1>
<p>If this is your webspace and would like help on building your website, take a look at our <a href="http://www.plus.net/help/">Help &amp; Support pages</a> and <a href="http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/board,6.0.html">Community site forums</a>.</p>
<span class="footer"><?php echo date("Y"); ?> &copy; Plusnet plc All rights reserved</span>
</body>
</html>

[#12]

@TonyOCL, it seems that there's a hidden .htaccess file in your root directory that is doing something odd.

If I rename it to .htaccess.bak it seems I can access both your site at ccgi.ocluk.plus.com and the Wordpress installation directory.

I've had to revert the change though because I didn't want to leave you with a Wordpress installer exposed to the Internet.

Try renaming that file yourself (the one in the root directory, *not* the one in /public) and see how you get on.

[#13]

I have now got wordpress installed.

I now want to get ocluk.com to switch to the new wp site as default.

Do you know how I can do it?

Regards

Tony

[#14]

@TonyOCL 

Pleased to hear WordPress has installed.

Your planned next stage seems heavily dependent on whether Plusnet Business still allow and support this option. I suspect not but the way forward is probably to raise a Hosting ticket.

[#15]

Thaks .. I will do that.