This post has technical details about a change in the way PHP scripts are run from the command-line shell on our systems. It doesn’t affect PHP scripts run through websites, which is what most of our customers use (for WordPress and so on); nothing is changing about those web-based PHP scripts.
The PHP developers recently released versions 7.0.15 and 5.6.30 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.0 and 5.6 series on our servers as a result.
In addition, we’re now providing support for the PHP 7.1 series, so PHP 7.1.1 is also available in our control panel.
Finally, the PHP 7.0 series has been out long enough that all modern script software should be compatible with it, and the authors of the WordPress software recommend it specifically. Because of that, we’re making PHP 7.0 the default for new customers, and we recommend that all customers switch to PHP 7. It’s almost twice as fast as old versions of PHP.
If you’re not yet using PHP 7 but you’d like your WordPress or other PHP-based site to seem snappier, or be able to handle twice as many visitors per second, you can easily do so:
Then test your site to make sure it works properly. If it does: Great, you’ve just made your site much faster! If it doesn’t, it’s probably because you’re using older scripts that haven’t yet been updated, and you can simply set PHP back to an earlier version for now. (But be sure to contact the authors of your scripts and ask when they will be compatible with PHP 7.)
As always, if you have any trouble, don’t hesitate to contact us.
We’re making a minor technical change to the SSH settings our servers use, removing obsolete and insecure ciphers like “3des-cbc”.
The changes are required to ensure that sites we host pass PCI compliance scans. The obsolete ciphers allowed SSH connections that appeared to be secure, but really weren’t.
This should not affect anything for our customers who use SSH, as long as you use modern, updated SSH software. We’re just documenting it in case anyone has difficulties with SSH connections.
If you do have any trouble, the solution is almost certainly to update your SSH client software, though — the program you’re using is probably pretty outdated and may also have trouble connecting to other servers, not just ours.
As always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any trouble or questions.
