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The server is back online, and we have confirmed all services are functioning properly. Thank you for your patience during this time.

Our server is down for emergency maintenance. Our data center team is currently working on it. We will provide more information shortly.

Server back online and all service are up

Server down for emergency maintenance, our DC team is working on it now. We shall update here with more information with in few minutes.

The server is back up, and all services have been restored.

We’re aware of the current server Elk outage, and our team is working to restore service as quickly as possible. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

We have fixed the issue, and all services are working fine.

We want to inform all users that the Clifford Server is currently under emergency maintenance. Our data center team is actively working on the issue to restore services as soon as possible. You may experience downtime or limited accessibility during this period. We will provide updates here as soon as more information becomes available. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

This emergency restoration has been successfully completed. We have verified that all services are operating normally. Kindly submit a support ticket should you observe any issues. We appreciate your patience during this period.

We experienced a catastrophic hardware failure on the server hosting this service. The system is currently offline. An emergency restore is in progress. Data recovery and service rebuild are underway now. More updates will follow as we progress through the restore process.

Please be advised of the following urgent server maintenance notification: Date: 12.2.2025 Time: 08:31PM EST Server: FAWN Service: All Service Impacting: Yes Scope of Work: Investigating Outage Resolved: NO Notice Source: https://status.totalchoicehosting.com The TotalChoice Hosting Technical team is aware of a service issue with the listed server and is working quickly to resolve it. We appreciate your patience as we address and resolve this issue. Thank you for your understanding.

IP address seems correct. I'll raise a ticket - thanks.

Please double-check the IP address you’re using. If the issue remains, submit a help-desk ticket as the account owner for further assistance

I see that WP 6.8.3 claims support for PHP versions up to 8.3 so I've updated the site setting to use this rather than 8.4. Exactly the same problem remains.

I'm in the process of trying to move a WordPress site from another host and want to configure everything on the TCH account before updating the DNS to point here. I've created a new account, installed WP and followed the guidance in the attached post to hopefully allow me to access wp-admin and do the work. Unfortunately, attempts to access the URL http://98.38.77.182/~pods/wp-admin are now hanging before the browser tells me the server dropped the connection. Can anyone help me out and let me know what I need to do? The account is brand new with a completely vanilla WP installation so if I need to erase and recreate, that's perfectly fine. After the basic installation, I set the PHP version to 8.4 for that tree and fixed errors I found in the various error.log files (I had a typo in wp-config.php which I fixed and had to add a "session.gc_divisor=100" to php.ini to get rid of another error).

Joomla 6.0 & 5.4 are now available. Be sure to read everything on the page linked to below before upgrading! Read more / Get them at: joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5939-joomla-6-0-and-joomla-5-4-are-here.html

Joomla 5.3.4, is a bugfix & security release. See more at the url below or use the built in updater. It is also a security release for the 4.x series of Joomla, see more info about that on the url below. Read more / Get it at: joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5936-joomla-5-3-4-security-bugfix-release.html

Thanks Thomas

Joomla 5.3.3, is a bugfix release. Read more / Get it at: joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5930-joomla-5-3-3-bugfix-release.html or use the built in updater.

I should have thought of that pretty obvious option. Thanks! Hopefully I'll be able to get some idea of whether the ported site is working before I switch the DNS and break everything 🙂

Hi, You can preview your WordPress site on TCH before updating the DNS by using the following format: https://servername/~username Just replace: servername with your actual server’s hostname username with your cPanel username Note that if your WordPress site was built using the original domain, you might run into issues when accessing it via the temporary URL. WordPress hardcodes the site URL and home URL in the database, so loading it via /~username may load the site incorrectly.

I'm porting a WordPress site from another hosting provider and am keen to make sure that it's up and running before updating its DNS settings. I can't for the life of me remember what the URL format is to allow me to access a TCH site in this case, though. Can anyone help me out? I've tried http://<user>:<password>@<server IP>, http://<server IP>/home/<user>, and a bunch of other options with no luck so far.

At TotalChoice Hosting, we’re proud to power everything from personal side projects to enterprise-grade platforms. Our dedicated servers are the quiet backbone behind thousands of websites, applications, and digital experiences — built by people who care about performance, reliability, and support that actually shows up when it matters. In this Client Showcase, we’re excited to feature Criticker — a smart, community-driven recommendation engine that helps people discover what to watch or play next. Whether you’re a film buff, TV junkie, or gamer, Criticker offers a personalized experience built on taste and trust. Behind the scenes, their entire platform runs on our high-performance Michigan Dedicated Servers, backed by over 15 years of partnership. Criticker is a film, TV, and video game recommendation platform that works a little differently than the typical streaming algorithm. Instead of guessing based on popularity, Criticker matches users with others who share their unique tastes and builds recommendations based on that network of similar preferences. We recently spoke with Mike Powell, Co-Founder of Criticker, about his experience with TotalChoice Hosting and what makes Criticker tick. Why Criticker Chose TotalChoice Hosting After facing reliability issues with a previous provider, Mike Powell and his team at Criticker were looking for more than just another server — they needed trust, performance, and real support! How Criticker Runs at Scale Criticker operates a server infrastructure designed to support the demands of a high-traffic, data-rich recommendation engine. Their platform runs entirely on a home-grown PHP framework, with MySQL and JavaScript powering the backend and frontend — all working in harmony to deliver personalized results in real time. With over 21 million ratings and counting, the platform is built to handle continuous load, dynamic content generation, and a growing global audience. Thanks to the flexibility and reliability of their dedicated hosting environment, Criticker can focus on refining its platform, not managing downtime. Performance That Speaks for Itself At TotalChoice Hosting, we don’t wait for problems to happen — we work proactively with our clients to identify opportunities for improvement before performance becomes an issue. That’s exactly what happened during a recent review of Criticker’s infrastructure. After coordinating a hardware upgrade to better support their growing workload, the results were immediate. By staying ahead of the curve with infrastructure planning and support, TotalChoice ensures Criticker’s platform runs at peak performance, no matter how much it grows. criticker.com Support That Shows Up When It Matters Most We asked Mike if there was a time when TotalChoice Hosting’s support really stood out. Without hesitation, he recalled a moment that perfectly captured what we aim to deliver: At TotalChoice Hosting, this is more than just a support ticket — it’s our standard. Real people. Real responses. And real solutions, even on weekends, when it matters most. Hosting That Helps You Grow As Criticker has grown, so has its infrastructure’s complexity. Today, its platform runs on bare metal dedicated servers, supporting a custom-built PHP framework, MySQL databases, and JavaScript-powered features. With TotalChoice Hosting, Criticker has built a scalable and dependable environment that keeps pace with its evolving demands. Mike Powell, Co-Founder of Criticker, said it best: This flexibility—backed by personal, responsive support—allows Criticker to scale confidently as its audience grows while keeping performance and reliability at the core of its user experience. Final Thoughts from Criticker For over 15 years, Criticker has relied on TotalChoice Hosting to deliver the stability, speed, uptime, and personal support needed to run a global recommendation platform. From server upgrades to weekend support requests, our team has been there to ensure their infrastructure stays invisible so their users can focus on discovering great entertainment without interruption. We’re proud to have earned that trust over so many years and even prouder to continue powering Criticker’s growth into the future. Partnerships like these define TotalChoice Hosting. View the full article

Thanks Thomas

Joomla 5.3.2, is a bugfix release. Read more / Get it at: joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5929-joomla-5-3-2-bugfix-release.html or use the built in updater.