WordPress allows to automatically install and upgrade plugins from within the the site without having to login into FTP.

A common problem is that WordPress is unable to access the filesystem directly, which results in a page indicating following message

“To perform the requested action, WordPress need to access your web server. Please enter your FTP credentials to proceed……”.

Wordpress FTP connection

WordPress Asks FTP Credentials

WordPress needs to make changes in the filesystem to install or upgrade the files.

Before modifying the files, WordPress need to have permission to make changes to the file system.

For WordPress to access the filesystem, functions that will write to the filesystem must be owned by the same user running  the apache process.

Who Owns Apache

There are 2 ways that I’m aware of finding apache owner.

Option 1:

Run the following command to find who owns apache

ps aux | grep apache

Sample Output

root@host [~]# ps aux | grep apache
root      3335  0.0  0.5 158828 12644 ?        Ss   16:44   0:00 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start -DSSL
nobody    9243  2.4  6.8 187336 158208 ?       S    18:08   0:34 /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -k start -DSSL

Option 2:

Run the following command

egrep -iw --color=auto 'user|group' /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Apache Owner

As you can see the User is nobody and he Group is nobody.

Go to wp-content folder and check its properties. Ownership should be either the username or root (whcih is why FTP credentials are required).

Change Ownership and Group

Using Win-SCP as FTP client you can change the ownership and group as follows (Right Click on Folder, select Properties)

• Change Owner and Group to nobody.
• Checkbox Set permissions recursively
• Repeat this for other wordpress folders in the wp-admin and wp-includes

Alternatively, you can use chown command to ownership of the folders and files recursively.

Now try to  instal or upgrading the plugin. You shouldn’t be prompted for FTP connection credentials.

Quick Fix

If you don’t want to change the ownership of  folders within wordpress, here is another way to get around the FTP connection credentials prompt.

Open wp-config.php file located at /home/yourusername/public_html or /home/yourusername/

Add following 3 lines of code

define(“FTP_HOST”, “localhost”);
define(“FTP_USER”, “ftp-username”);
define(“FTP_PASS”, “ftp-password”);

Change the ftp-username and ftp-password.

Save the file.

Now, try to install or upgrade a plugin.

This should have fixed the wordpress FTP connection credentials prompt.

Now, happy installing or upgrading plugins and themes from within WordPress.

This post - Fixed – WordPress Asks for FTP Connection to Install Plugin is from 41Square.

But, ownership and group can cause bit of an issue to perform automatic plugin install and upgrades.

 Wordpress Asks for FTP details [Fixed]

WordPress Permissions Files and Directories

Some neat features of WordPress come from allowing various files to be writable by the web server. However, allowing write access to your files is potentially dangerous, particularly in a shared hosting environment.

It is best to lock down your file permissions as much as possible and to loosen those restrictions on the occasions that you need to allow write access, or to create specific folders with less restrictions for the purpose of doing things like uploading files.

Here is one possible permission scheme.

All files should be owned by your user account, and should be writable by you. Any file that needs write access from WordPress should be group-owned by the user account used by the web server.

/ 

The root WordPress directory: all files should be writable only by your user account, except .htaccess if you want WordPress to automatically generate rewrite rules for you.

/wp-admin/ 

The WordPress administration area: all files should be writable only by your user account.

/wp-includes/ 

The bulk of WordPress application logic: all files should be writable only by your user account.

/wp-content/ 

User-supplied content: intended to be completely writable by all users (owner/user, group, and public).

Within /wp-content/ you will find:

/wp-content/themes/ 

Theme files. If you want to use the built-in theme editor, all files need to be group writable. If you do not want to use the built-in theme editor, all files can be writable only by your user account.

/wp-content/plugins/ 

Plugin files: all files should be writable only by your user account.

Other directories that may be present with /wp-content/ should be documented by whichever plugin or theme requires them. Permissions may vary.

Right Permissions

I plan to test the above listed WordPress File, Folder permissions and share the results here.

This post - WordPress File and Folder Permissions is from 41Square.

Source – bitly’s science team.

A tweet’s productive life span is 2.8 hours according to a 2011 study by bitly’s science team.

The team also discovered the “half life” for Facebook shares is 3.2 hours and emails or IMs (3.4 hours).

This post - Life Span of a Tweet, Facebook Share and Email is from 41Square.

Downloading update from http://wordpress.org/wordpress-3.3.1-no-content.zip…

Unpacking the update…

Verifying the unpacked files…

Installing the latest version…

Could not copy file.: /public_html/index.php

Installation Failed

Folder/File Permissions

Typical wordpress upgrade failure from within wordpress Automatic updates are related to file/folder permissions.

Problem

• wp-content folder owner was set to nobody
• wp-content/upload owner was set to the FTP User.

Fix – Apache should have same owner as webserver owner.

By changing the WordPress File and Folder permissions, WordPress Auto Upgrade will work without any issues.

Solution -

I have explained how to fix WordPress Auto upgrade error as part of WordPress asks for FTP details.

This post - WordPress Auto Upgrade Failed – Installation Failed is from 41Square.

Fatal error: Cannot redeclare stats_get_options() (previously declared in /home/username/public_html/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/modules/stats.php:110) in /home/username/public_html/wp-content/plugins/stats/stats.php on line #

Solution

• Deactivate Jetpack Plugin
• Delete WordPress Stats Plugin
• Re-Activate Jetpack
• Connect Jetpack to WordPress.com

This post - [Fixed] Fatal error: Cannot redeclare stats_get_options() is from 41Square.

Fatal error: Call to undefined function is_rtl() in /home/username/public_html/wp-includes/general-template.php on line

While trying to visit dashboard (after the upgrade or trying to configure other plugins, above Fatal Error was displayed.

Fix – Popup Domination Plugin

If you have Popup Domination Plugin installed, then you are more likely to see the above  Fatal Error.

• FTP to your plugins folder
• Rename Popup Domination Plugin Folder Name
• Example popup-domination to popup-domination-deactivated
• Try visiting wordpress dashboard
• Everything should work as expected.

This post - [Fixed] – Fatal error: Call to undefined function is_rtl() – WordPress is from 41Square.

I have been observing the RAM usage between two hosting providers and I was surprised to see the huge difference.

• VPS.net – Average RAM – 3 GB
• VPS.net – Average RAM after migration 2 GB
• KnownHost – Average RAM 450MB (4 weeks)

I’m trying to figure out, why there is 2.5GB difference in RAM usage for the same number of sites.

VPS.NET Issues

I decided to sing-up with VPS after seeing the “famous Yoast’ setup.

I was quick to realize, VPS.Net doesn’t care about their customers. Their management was communicating at one level, where as support staff were communicating at another level.

SAN-Atlanta was down for over 36 hours during first week of September. When asked when sites will be backup

Your VPS is in queue to be rebooted and will be online ASAP.

If you are having a planned downtime, then you better know how long it takes to bring things backup and running. Plus, inform customers few days ahead of the planned downtime.

Known Host

Man O Man. Best customer service I have seen with hosting provider so far (Dreamhost, VPS and Knownhost).

When I submit a ticket, they respond within 15 minutes. On top of that, they explain how the issue was fixed, commands run to fix it (sometimes with screenshot).

I might downgrade Hybrid Hosting plan to HY1. If RAM usage is just 450 Mb, why pat for HY2?

With my experience so far, I strongly recommend Known Host. (affiliate link)

This post - Why VPS.net RAM Usgae is Freaking High? is from 41Square.

I have seen it 3 times in last 10 hours. First 2 times, I thought I must gave hit the refresh button. But, third time around, I saw the page was getting refreshed.

I have to figure out what is the time interval for auto refresh.

This post - Google Adsene Page – Auto Refreshing? is from 41Square.

In my case it is located here:

• C:xamppphpmyadminconfig.inc.php

Find the line with $cfg['UploadDir'] on it and update it to:

• $cfg['UploadDir'] = ‘upload’;

If above line doesn’t exist, then copy it from config.sample.inc.php

Create a directory called ‘upload’ within the phpmyadmin directory.

• C:xamppappsphpmyadminupload

Then place the move the sql files into upload folder.

Now when you go to phpmyadmin import page you will see  a drop down with list of .sql files.

You can now select this and begin the import.

I’m using xampp for Windows 7.

This post - [Fixed] You probably tried to upload too large file – phpmyadmin is from 41Square.

Page loading speed definitely improved. I was aware that VPS.Net was un-managed hosting  and they offered to migrate all the sites from Dreamhost.

I have been with VPS.Net for about 4 months, but not without issues.

• Auto Scaling Reboot
• Invoice Error
• Poor Communication and Customer service with extended downtime’s

There is really no point in bashing VPS.net. Let me share my experience with Known Host for last 10 days.

Known Host Hybrid VPS

After experiencing lengthy downtime followed, I started looking for Managed Dedicated Servers with following requirements

• 4 GB of RAM
• Good support
• Budget was less than $200.

Finding dedicated servers was a challenge and I narrowed down to Servint and KnownHost.

One of the main reason to look for 4 GB machines was VPS RAM usgae (which was about 3 GB of RAM).

There were pros and cons with Dedicated Servers offered by both hosting providers.

After exchanging few email with ServInt, I realized, virtual layer will be added to dedicated machines. I wasn’t interested in having a dedicated box with virtual layer.

Then I read the reviews about Awesome Customer support with Knownhost and highest Uptime for their VPS machines. So, I settled down with Hybrid 2 VPS option in Known Host.

Now, I have been with KH for 10 days, I can give 5 star rating for their customer support.

KnownHost – Customer Support

When support folks reply to the tickets, they provided detailed explanations on  how problem was fixed and commands used to fix them. This helps in the learning process about managing a web server.

Now, I have hosted sites with 3 different hosting providers (Dreamhost, VPS.Net and KH). Customer support with KH is the best among them.

Also, I have realized that true face of hosting providers will be visible only when hosting box fails or when other data center bring down the site. If they can handle the downtime with proper communication, then they have a long term customer.

Monthly hosting expense for KnownHost HY2 comes to around $145 (with 15% discount for life)

Disclaimer – Links to Known Host is affiliate Link. If you sing-up for account with VPS through the link in this page, I will get small  affiliate fee.

This post - KnownHost Hybrid VPS Review (migrated from VPS.NET) is from 41Square.