This blog was down for about two hours just now, reporting 505 internal server error when I tried to access it. My other blogs had also gone down with it, so imagine my desperation in seeing all my blogs became inaccessible.
So I waited, thinking perhaps the problem would heal all by itself and that maybe there was a server maintenance going on at my webhost’s end.
But after two hours, I became restless. So I contacted Bluehost, the host provider, through its real-time chat feature. Below is the exchange, with some editing. JS is me, Alex is the guy who attended by queries. The time is 9.16 am (US time).
Alex [9:16:42 AM]: Welcome to our real-time support chat. How can I help you today?
JS [9:16:42 AM]: Hi, my site www.jaxons.org has been down quite sometime now, reporting 505 internal server error. Any idea what happened? Thanks.
Alex [9:17:03 AM]: let me investigate one moment please
JS [9:17:20 AM]: ok
Alex [9:19:59 AM]: looks like the 500 error is caused by the .htaccess file. [alert] [client 74.6.18.XXX] .htaccess: Invalid command ’sql/mysql.sock”, perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration [Pause] [9:20:50 AM]: I am assuming that is your IP?
JS [9:21:36 AM]: I’m not really sure and no idea how to fix this
Alex [9:23:23 AM]: let me see if I can investigate a few things for you.
JS [9:24:58 AM]: [I checked my IP] Ok, I’ve looked up my IP. And that is not mine. Mine starts with 60.54…
Alex [9:27:12 AM]: yeah I see it in the log now. And I am investigating the .htaccess thing. One moment please. [Pause... some two minutes later he came back] [9:30:59 AM]: site should be working fine now.
JS [9:31:34 AM]: [Checked my site and it's true it was back online. I shot a reply] Phew! Thanks Alex.
Alex [9:32:39 AM]: anytime
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