As of today, we’re officially no longer supporting the very old Ruby 1.8, Python 2.5 and Python 2.6 programs on our servers. They’ll soon be removed from our servers entirely. (Ruby and Python are scripting languages; if you don’t know what they are, your site is unlikely to affected by this and you can ignore it.)
Our MySQL database servers now support the innodb_large_prefix option and the “Barracuda” innodb_file_format option.
Users should not notice any difference, but this should improve compatibility with a small number of scripts that require these options (notably recent versions of Moodle).
We’ve updated the AWStats software we use to generate website statistics. The statistics beginning today use the latest version 7.7, which fixes several bugs. Customers should not notice any other changes.
We should probably mention that if you’re relying on AWStats for information about the behavior of human visitors, you can usually get more accurate statistics using Google Analytics, which works in a different way than simply analyzing log data after the fact. We have a page explaining more about the difference between AWStats and Google Analytics.
The PHP developers recently released version 5.6.33 that fixes several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 5.6 series on our servers as a result.
This change should not be noticeable, but in the unlikely event you experience any trouble, don’t hesitate to contact us.
The PHP developers recently released versions 7.0.27 and 7.1.13 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.0 and 7.1 series on our servers as a result.
These changes should not be noticeable, but as always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any trouble.
We’ve updated the SSL/TLS security settings on our webmail servers to match current “best practices” for security, disabling “SSLv3”.
Our customers shouldn’t notice any changes. (We made this change on our main website some time ago with no reports of problems, and many of the largest sites on the Internet have done the same.) We’re just mentioning this so that people know to contact us in the unlikely event they do have any trouble.
That said, if you do have any trouble, it’s probably because you’re using an outdated, insecure web browser that you should update. You can check your browser by visiting www.howsmyssl.com. If you can’t update it, using a different browser on your computer will probably help.
The PHP developers recently released versions 7.0.26 and 7.1.12 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.0 and 7.1 series on our servers as a result.
These changes should not be noticeable, but as always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any trouble.
Update Nov 29: It turns out these new versions of PHP both contain a bug that can cause rare crashes of a handful of scripts, including the NexGEN Gallery plugin for WordPress. We’ve temporarily reverted back to PHP 7.0.25 and 7.1.11 until this is fixed by the PHP developers.
Update Dec 4: We’ve applied patches from the PHP developers to fix the bug and re-deployed the fixed versions.
The authors of the Mailman mailing list software we provide for customers have recently released version 2.1.25 to fix several bugs.
We’ve upgraded the Mailman software on our servers as a result.
Users of Mailman lists shouldn’t notice any changes, but as always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or see any problems.
The PHP developers recently released versions 5.6.32, 7.0.25, and 7.1.11 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 5.6, 7.0 and 7.1 series on our servers as a result.
These changes should not be noticeable, but as always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any trouble.
The PHP developers recently released versions 7.0.24 and 7.1.10 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.0 and 7.1 series on our servers as a result.
These changes should not be noticeable, but as always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any trouble.
