Website D.O.W.N
You may have noticed that this past week my website wasn’t working properly. For two days it was completely down all together, then there was only black letters on a white background. Let me tell you… it was a stressful few days!!
Last Saturday morning I sat down with a cup of coffee and opened my laptop with the plan to upload my weekly blog for Monday morning. (I was early- YAY- and kinda proud of that fact) I clicked on the Word Press log-in button and was immediately sent to an error screen. “Hmmmm… that’s strange. Maybe my link isn’t working properly?” I thought. So, I went to the proper WP site and tried to log in there. Nope. Nada. WP didn’t even recognize my username.
“Keep it together,” I mumbled. I managed to succeed until I opened my website and saw nothing but an error message.
That’s when I brought out the big guns- I took Aaron my laptop with a cry of “Help!” and I anxiously watched while he spent the next few minutes hitting keys. (I know he was doing something important, but I’m not a computer person so I have no idea what it was) Finally he looked up at me and stated,
“I think you’ve been hacked.”
Words that everyone with an email, website, anything with a password LOATHES to hear. I had no idea what to do, but my imagination had no problem running wild!
I had visions of an anonymous hacker in his basement of solitude, surrounded by computer screens and empty cans of Redbull, getting his jollies off by messing with my carefully-planned graphics and web pages. Even worse, he (sorry men, I must admit to seeing him as a he) was embedding malware or viruses meant to infect the computers of people who visit the site. The thought horrified me!
After I calmed down enough to think clearly, I resigned myself to tackling this problem head-on and getting things fixed as quickly as I could. I spent the next two hours on the phone with tech support (super fun when I don’t know the computer jargon they’re speaking). I learned several things, but the best news was that I was NOT hacked!
My relief was palatable! I’m sure my husband could actually see my blood pressure decreasing.
I wasn’t hacked, but was an unfortunate victim of several unsupported updates that caused my site to freak out. I diligently took notes as the nice man tried (somewhat successfully) to explain what had happened to the site, what he’d been able to fix, and what I now needed to fix on my own.
The next step was to contact Brandon, my website guru. You guys might remember him from an earlier blog post; he’s the man who created the awesome website to begin with. I explained what I could and asked- possibly pleaded- with him to fix it, all the while hoping that the site’s customizations hadn’t been lost. He got back to me immediately and went to work. Within a day and a half, my site was up and running perfectly!
Brandon, if you ever read this, know that you have my undying gratitude! You’re the BEST!!
Now, all is well and I can get back to doing what I do best… writing!!
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