No need to post the same thing twice! I'm assuming you mean b2evolution and not b2 because b2 is an ancient ancestor to both WP and b2evolution. Assuming you mean b2evolution: what version are you running? If it's anything older than .9.1 you should upgrade to either it or the latest release which is version 1.6. Beginning in .9.1 a lot of effort went into reducing the overall load b2evolution places on your server - but that's only half the battle. You've also got to keep your antispam table fully up-to-date. That's one area where the .9.1 generation really saved the server. Basically it used to be that the spammer would get the whole page before being denied a slot in the hitlog table. Now the spammer is blocked immediately. Well, a tiny bit of b2evolution initializes, but almost immediately before checking if the referer is a spammer and if so it blocks them.

I'm not sure if general is the right forum or not, but I'm going to delete the other post and we can follow up any other questions you have on this topic here.

Oh one other thing. If you're getting a bazillion real regular visitors then you kinda gotta figure you're going to be using a lot of resources. I know on my boring old blog I cut my bandwidth (which is a reflection of overall resources I think) by like 80% when I upgraded to .9.1, so there you have it!

Hi Ed,
My apologies on posting twice ... I posted and then read the FAQ and wondered if this wasn't best posted in the client-side area. I should have deleted one of them.

Yes, I mean b2evolution -- sorry for the confusion. I'd love to send you to my blog, the problem is that my ISP literally shut me down with a couple hours notice. All you'll get is a "page suspended" message. But here it is:

http://www.dominatrixdeconstructed.com

I will check the version and upgrade and see if they will restore me for long enough to see if the upgrade fixes things.

In terms of regular traffic, I have a pretty high Google and Yahoo ranking (Top Five) for my niche, so I get a fair amount of legit traffic. But I DO know that I've been getting spammed, so perhaps with a little more work on that side of things I can keep it better managed.

I'll check back when I have the version# and let you know how things go or if I have any other questions.

BTW -- I do have a b2Evolution linkback on my blog -- you just can't get to it with the suspension in place!

Thanks so much in advance for your help.

Maryse

Hi Ed,

Okay, it looks like I'm running the following version:

0.9.0.11

This was the addon that my ISP offered, I believe I did the install through them. There is no upgrade option out of the addon console.

So ... I think I need to upgrade. Anything I need to watch out for before I do this? Or should it go fairly smoothly? Any files I need to back up first?

Again, thanks for your help Ed.

I saw your page was suspended. The thing in my posts about expecting a linkback is a signature file so's people cruising the forums (who will probably find me somewhere in there) will get this little prompt.

Anyway upgrading is not so hard, but lets learn a few things before we go crazy. Can you access your files at your host? Have you or someone with permissions on your server hacked any of the 'core' files for any reason? Is your skin a customized skin or did you pick a stock skin from either the installation or the skins site?

The files you'll need to back up are mostly in your "conf" folder. Specifically you'll want your conf/_config.php file because that is the file that tells b2evolution how to connect to your database. Others come in handy too, but that's the biggie. The next biggest biggie is to save all the files you may have uploaded through the 'upload' utility. Images mostly, but technically it's files. Save them because soon I'll say "delete everything on your server" and if you do you'll end up with no images to display. That's what I did :( If you've got any hacks installed you'll lose them when you upgrade, but that's what happens when you hack open source software. A customized skin can be upgraded with only a minimum of effort, so you may as well go for the full upgrade (to version 1.6, or the phoenix release). If you've got (had!) a custom skin you'll need to save it from your server before you upgrade.

After saving the important files the rest is pretty easy. First get the new package from the downloads site (linked up top on the forums). Now unzip it and edit the new conf/_config.php file. Fill in the 4 lines about your database, the line for your base url (noting that now it has a trailing slash and back in the old days it didn't), and your admin email id. Change a line that says something like "config_is_done" from a 0 to a 1. Cool! Delete all the current b2evolution files from your server, but NOT your database. Upload the new installation including the new conf/_config, then go to your_domain/install and select "upgrading from a previous b2evolution version". If all goes well you're database will update the bits it needs to and you won't lose any old content. Now you can upload all the stuff from your old media folder to your new media folder.

Your server should see a significant reduction in the overall load your server experiences, though possibly your traffic is beyond what your host thinks you've paid for. As I said and will repeat: keep your antispam table up to date to really get the most improvement out of the new code as it affects your server usage.

Thanks Ed for the really thorough upgrade directions.

Nothing has been hacked on the install. The only thing I did was customize some of the skin templates so that certain links to blog sites were included in the right-hand area. I also uploaded a picture.

I'll follow your directions and I'm sure everything will be cool. If I have any questions, I know who to talk to.

Again, thanks for the help. Hoping this will reduce the cpu usage. I'll certainly keep up on the spam -- which i was only doing every now and then. That could have been a major issue.

Kisses...

Maryse

Read my blog at: http://www.dominatrixdeconstructed.com
Website: http://www.mistressmaryse.com