Updating Wordpress Version Via GoDaddy

Here's an interesting video that tells you how to update your current version of WordPress to a more up-to-date version at GoDaddy hosting:

The basic premise of the video seems to be you should use the GoDaddy interface for updating your WordPress version number rather than the WordPress interface. In other words, there are 2 interfaces for updating WordPress but, apparently, only one of them works correctly. This point is made at the end of the video

I cannot vouch for the truth of any of this as I do not have a WordPress site at GoDaddy. However, I'm posting this for future reference, in case I need this information later.

Note that the video is a bit dated. Looks like it is from September, 2011. Since that time, newer GoDaddy sites seem to be cPanel sites. I'm not sure if GoDaddy's policy of gradually switching to cPanel administration, instead of GoDaddy's custom administration, makes a difference. It might.

Ed Abbott

FTP at GoDaddy

I notice that FTP has changed at Godaddy. Probably this is because the newer sites at Godaddy now are based on cPanel rather than GoDaddy's proprietary control panel.

Or maybe it's a little bit of a hybrid between the old GoDaddy and the new GoDaddy, which is cPanel. I've not spent much time looking at it, but it appears to me that GoDaddy is a little bit of cPanel now and a little bit of what it always was.

In any case, something that seems to have changed, at least on a new hosting account, is the FTP URL. The URL is now a real URL and not just the hosting account IP address.

Here's how I found the the FTP URL:

1. I logged into GoDaddy
2. In the upper right-hand corner, I found the words My Account
3. I clicked on My Account
4. I chose Manage Your Account from the choices that appeared
5. I chose Web Hosting from the next list of choices
6. I chose Launch next. This seems to launch the little control panel for the web hosting account. Be sure to choose the right web hosting account if you have more than one.
7. This is where GoDaddy starts to look a bit like cPanel. Ignore all the cPanel stuff and look on the right side of the page.
8. Find Server Details halfway down the page on the right side
9. Find the FTP Address under Server Details

An oddity of the GoDaddy interface is that the place where you find your FTP user information, and where you find your FTP URL, are two distinct places. I think I can explain this oddity.

The reason the FTP URL and the FTP username are in 2 separate places seems to me to be historical. It used to be that you only needed the IP address of your website to form an FTP URL. That was the old GoDaddy before cPanel.

In the new GoDaddy, the FTP URL consists of a domain name and sub-domain names and is no longer a simple IP Address. However, the place where all the FTP domains are kept is still the same place as where the IP address has always been kept. Therefore, both the IP Address and the FTP URL are kept under Server Details.

So, it seems, to make a graceful transition, GoDaddy is keeping the FTP URL information under Server Details even though it makes more sense to put it under FTP User information.

In other words, the old is being blended with tne new.

I suspect that placing the information you need to do an FTP login in 2 distinct places will change over time. In the end, it will be cheaper for GoDaddy to fix this then it will be for them to field questions from people who call in for technical support.

However, right now, it's all split up. The FTP URL information is not in the same place as the FTP username information.

Change is gradual, isn't it? It seems that it is so much easier to make an incremental change than a global change. In time, I trust, GoDaddy will get this right.

Ed Abbott

Logging Out or Signing Out of Godaddy

I'm always looking for a way to do the simplest little things. Today, it took me a moment to figue out how to log out of GoDaddy.com.

After logging into the home page with all my account information, I'd like to be able to sign out. It is not as obvious as I might have thought. Here are the steps I took:

1. Type Control-F to do a search on the Godaddy page that sits in front of you on your computer screen
2. Type My Account into the search box
3. Click down-arrow on the search box to search
4. Click on My Account when the My Account link is found
5. A window will pop up
6. Click log out in the pop up window

I've noticed that it is becoming harder and harder to log out of sites in general. Perhaps there is a modern trend towards always being logged in.

I don't know. Maybe this is because this is safer security-wise. Perhaps authenticating a user several times a day is actually less safe than authenticating a user once a day.

It's possible that everytime you log in someone, in theory, could steal your password. So, maybe GoDaddy is discouraging too much logging in and logging out.

Just as likely is the possibility that I'm reading too much into this trend of making signing out almost a hidden function. Maybe signing out is getting harder because screen real estate is so valuable.

Either way, I might be better off updating my screen habits. Maybe signing out is a thing of the past.

However, I have to say that there is something satisfying about signing out of a website. It makes me feel as though I'm done, completely done.

Ed Abbott