Looks like I will be lucky today if I can get to 150 clicks. I am having an issue with my API calls with eBay and Amazon. I feel sure that this is a host problem with HostGator.com. I have not had any issues like this before. I opened a ticket about an hour ago and am hoping that the issue is resolved soon.
Funny thing about this error is that I can get it to fix itself by going to the wp-admin login screen and then just closing it and returning to the site. After doing this the error goes away for about 10 minutes and then returns. Not sure what that is about.
I found another site getting the error via google and then did WHOIS. Guess what? They are hosted with HostGator.com. I will let everyone know how fast their support is with this issue.
This is how the error message starts out:
Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity
Then it goes on to list the url that I use to generate the xml.
It sucks when I have no control over a problem like this. Almost makes me want to put a server rack in my garage and start my own hosting.
#### UPDATED – RESOLUTION ####
This is the new php.ini file I had to use to resolve this problem.
This is the info I had to add to my .htaccess.
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Hey… I am now #7 in Google for the search term, Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity, I bet that is going to be a big money maker!
Sucks. I’m not having any problems. Use same function.
Sure does! They got back to me 2:00 AM this morning… but I already called it a night by then. Did not have time to try what they said until just a few minutes ago. It works. I am fixing my sites one by one. I will post what happened once they are all fixed.
So here is what happened… email from Hostgator at 2 AM this morning.
### START EMAIL ####
This error was caused by a caching mod that we added to this server. I’ve set up a custom php.ini file for your account flutes that disables this module, and that site is now resolving properly. If you are seeing this error on any of your other sites, please let us know which ones and we can perform the same change for them, as well.
### END EMAIL ###
Ok… so not very fair to me that they just perform this upgrade and take out almost 100 of my sites. You would think they would have tested this and notified people ahead of time that would be affected. All in all the response time was pretty good on figuring out what was wrong, but it should have never happened in my eyes.
I contacted them again stating that I need to be able to resolve this on my own and that I cannot contact support everytime I create a new site. Here is their response…
### START EMAIL ###
Yes, to setup the custom php.ini, do the following:
1) copy the php.ini into each account’s home directory
2) create a .htaccess in each account’s home directory with the following in it:
Click the .htaccess in the main post
3) change the $user variable to the account username
That will enable the php.ini for each account. Let us know if you have any questions or concerns about this.
### END EMAIL ###
So I just got finished doing this on all my sites. Yippee what fun! I had to do it as I was down almost 2 days and lost about $100.00 total at my current EPC.
To make this post usefull to others that have hostgator and might run into this problem I included a link to the php.ini file they provided me in the main post.
Thanks a lot! Good to know and sucks they decided to enable this module without telling anyone. I would ask for a free month or 2. It’s worth a shot.
This saved my a$$. Thanks!
Glad to help!