Unable to reach any Akismet servers – My new WordPress error message

October 29th, 2009

Usually Akismet protects my blog from spammers. It’s captured and prevented nearly 50,000 (yes, fifty thousand) spam comments from annoying me. But today, all of a sudden, I got a dozen spam comments one right after the other. I looked at the IP addresses, and they were from all over, Israel to the Netherlands. So I looked inside the Akismet Configuration and saw this scary message: “Unable to reach any Akismet servers.”

Here’s what I saw:

akismet-2

How scary is that?

A few minutes later it changed to this:

akismet-3

A little less scary. But then it changed back to all red. So I send my hosting company, DreamHost, a support ticket to see what’s up. I’m not sure if it’s a hosting issue, or an Akismet issue, but will update this post when I find out.

…sending happy healthy thoughts to the Akismet server…

UPDATE:

DreamHost tech support said that they had some network issues earlier, but it should be resolved now. Sure enough, I went back into Akismet Configuration, rechecked the servers (had to click the button) and they were all green.

So the lesson learned is, if you have Akismet protecting your WordPress blog and it suddenly stops working, check the Network Status via the Akismet Configuration, and if it’s red, contact your hosting company to fix it.

Jill
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J. Olkoski
Aldebaran Web Design, Seattle
Jill Olkoski has a BS in Engineering, a BS in Computer Science and an MA in Clinical Psychology. She delights in using her advanced technical, psychological and interpersonal skills to help small business owners develop cost-effective and successful websites.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 2:54 pm and is filed under the Blogs category. Read other Aldebaran Website Design Blog articles by returning to main blog page. Need a blog added to your website? Click here to read about blog installation services or click here to contact Aldebaran Web Design. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

2 Responses to “Unable to reach any Akismet servers – My new WordPress error message”

Shannon Says:
October 30th, 2009 at 4:13 am
I had the same problem, also as a Dreamhost customer… Your entry was helpful because I didn’t clue in that I had to click the button to fix it and I had just been waiting for it to restart on its own! Thanks.
Jill Olkoski Says:
October 30th, 2009 at 8:40 am
Hi Shannon,
You know, I’m not sure if clicking that button actually does anything, or just changes the display…but clicking it and having it turn from red to green was very rewarding, so perhaps it is helpful regardless. Glad you found the comment helpful.

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