PHP5 End of Life

by | Nov 20, 2018 | Uncategorized, WebDesign

Why it’s important to know if your website is using outdated PHP 

If you have a website, then there is a good chance it is using PHP – and it’s important to know which version – because PHP 5 is going to leave your website extremely vulnerable come the end of this year… PHP 5 end of life

What exactly is PHP?
PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor (yep, it would make more sense if it was called HPP but it used to stand for “Personal Home Page”, so it used to make sense…). It is basically an open source, scripting (programming) language used for the development of web applications.

So, if your website is built with the help of WordPress, Joomla or Drupal (and many others), then it’s worth checking which version you are running.

How to check the PHP Version
If you are using WordPress and using WordFence, it’s pretty simple: just go to Tools / Diagnostics and scroll down to the “PHP Environment” bit and you should see the PHP version on your right.

There is also a little Plugin “Display-php-version” that will display your php version in the dashboard.

If you are not using WordPress but have ftp access, you can create a new file (i.e. testphp) in your root directory with the following content:

<?php
phpinfo();
Then type in the file URL in a web browser and your PHP version will be displayed. Remember to delete the file afterwards!

If you are still using PHP 5
… it’s time to upgrade – urgently!

Speak to your web designer or hosting company and ask for the upgrade but make sure to take a backup of your site first – although upgrading to the latest PHP is necessary, it can break a thing or two, depending on how old your website is!

PHP 5 is reaching its end-of-life on 31.12.18 which means that it will no longer be supported and no updates to fix security issues will be released, therefore leaving your website open to vulnerability and exploitation.

And finally

Get in touch if you want any advice, or prefer for us to upgrade to the latest PHP, so you can be rest assured that you are protected against all the latest security risks.

 

Have PC Harmony,
so you can concentrate on the more important things in life…

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