The PHP developers have released a major update to PHP, version 8.0. We’ve installed it on our servers for customers who want to test it.
It’s so new that many scripts are still incompatible with it, including all versions of WordPress before the recent WordPress 5.6, so most people should not use it yet. In addition, it does not yet support the ImageMagick extension (but the more standard GD works fine), nor does it yet support ionCube Loader.
Keep in mind that we consider PHP 8 to be only experimental for now; if you have any trouble at all, we recommend you simply switch back to PHP 7.4 in our control panel.
The PHP developers recently released versions 7.3.25 and 7.4.13 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.3 and 7.4 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.
(By the way, if you’re wondering about support for the brand new PHP 8.0: that isn’t yet available because many things are still incompatible with it, but we do plan to support it in the future.)
If you use the Mozilla Thunderbird email program, and it won’t retrieve mail after updating to the latest Thunderbird version 78, this can be caused by a bug in the “ESET Internet Security” (or “Smart Security”) firewall/antivirus program.
In particular, if you use ESET and Thunderbird just hangs with a message saying “checking mail server capabilities”, ESET is almost certainly the cause. There are several threads on their forums about it ([1], [2]), and it’s not related to our servers — Thunderbird 78 works fine with our servers in general.
Our business offices will be closed on Thursday, November 26 to observe the US legal holiday for Thanksgiving.
As always, we’ll provide same-day support for time-sensitive issues via our ticket and e-mail systems. However, questions that aren’t time-sensitive (including most billing matters) may not be answered until Friday, and telephone support (via callbacks) will be available only for urgent problems.
For the last few months, we’ve been publicly testing a new webmail interface for our customers. The new system has more flexible message composing, the ability to drag-and-drop images and other attachments, a simpler mobile interface, and a generally more modern feel.
Today, we’ve updated the software to (among other changes) add a new “Dark” theme you can choose, and also to improve the message view in “two column” layout. You can now switch between a “split” and a “full height” view by clicking the new zoom icon (shown here circled in green):
You can find the new webmail interface at https://webmail.tigertech.net/, and we have some tips for using it. (By the way, if you don’t see the new features immediately, you may need to logout and login again, or clear the cache in your web browser.)
We intend to make the new interface the default soon. But if you don’t like the new webmail system for some reason, the old webmail system is also still available (and will remain available for the foreseeable future).
The PHP developers recently released versions 7.3.24 and 7.4.12 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.3 and 7.4 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 7.2.34, 7.3.23 and 7.4.11 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.2, 7.3 and 7.4 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.
If you’ve previously installed an older version of WordPress, you should update it from within your WordPress Dashboard.
One great new feature of WordPress 5.5 is that it adds automatic updates of plugins and themes. We strongly recommend enabling this feature to improve the security of your site. To do that, just click “Enable auto-updates” for all your plugins and themes:
That’s all it takes to prevent most “hacker” attacks on your site.
The PHP developers recently released versions 7.3.22 and 7.4.10 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.2, 7.3 and 7.4 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.
