We are seeing a lot of e-mails from users concerning the outdated Fantastico installed scripts that users have been receiving.

Users are receiving these notices because they at one time installed the stated script with Fantastico from within their control panel.

We are seeing a lot of e-mails from individuals who have upgraded their scripts manually and are wondering why they are still receiving these notices.

To explain this, you have to understand that Fantastico is a script library. It is an entity in itself. If you install a script with Fantastico, you are expected to keep the script updated through Fantastico. This is the only way that Fantastico can be made aware of what version of the script you have installed.

Fantastico keeps a database of what is installed, where it is installed, and what version is installed. When you use Fantastico to install a script, it adds this to its database.

WordPress was installed in /home/user/public_html/wordpress and is version 2.7.1

When you manually update one of these scripts, this internal database is not updated. If you update this WordPress install to version 2.8.4, but do it manually, then the Fantastico internal database still thinks you have version 2.7.1 installed.

When Fantastico runs its check and looks for outdated installs, it uses this internal database to determine the versions of the software installed. So even though you may have manually updated your script to the latest version, Fantastico is not going to know about this and is going to think that you still have an outdated script.

What can be done about this?

Contact support if this affects you. We can remove your script install from the Fantastico internal database so that you will not receive the notices any more. You won’t be able to update the script with Fantastico any more, but if you have already manually updated the script, it is likely that Fantastico will not be able to update your script, without messing something up. This is because of the version mismatch in its system.

PLEASE NOTE: It is highly recommended that if you install a script with Fantastico that you keep the script updated with Fantastico. This may mean that it takes a few days longer to get script updates applied to your script. If you are really into following the development of a script and wish to always have the latest version of the script installed we highly recommend that you manually install the script instead of using Fantastico for the initial install.

Steven

I have seen a few issues where users have had trouble upgrading Fantastico based scripts. This is likely due to a low amount of disk space on your account. Fantastico will require some temporary disk space in order to perform the script update on your account. If you don’t have enough disk space available, then Fantastico may run out of space while performing the upgrade.

A quick way to check this is to check your Disk Space Usage. This is available in your control panel on the left-side under the Stats heading. It will look something like:

If the bar is RED then you will definitely want to contact support and have them update the script for you. If the bar is YELLOW then you may still want to contact support and have them do this upgrade.

Fantastico will create a backup of your script before it does an upgrade. It needs enough disk space to create this backup, store the final backup, and have enough disk space available to perform the upgrade. If you believe your disk space is too low for all of this, then please contact support before attempting an upgrade so that we can investigate this and perform the upgrade for you.

Thanks
Steven

We have begun the process of sending out notices to our users concerning outdated Fantastico installed scripts.

The subjects of these messages will be:

[AMS] Outdated Fantastico Installs

If you receive one of these messages, please review the information.

The notices are sent out to be just that, notices. Please do not reply to the message because your message will go nowhere. If you have further questions regarding the information in the message please submit a support ticket at:

http://www.amshelp.com

If you do not receive a message but still want to inquire about possible outdated Fantastico installed scripts on your account, please open a support ticket and we can have that information provided for you.

Steven

I did a quick check of the servers and I found several outdated scripts that have been installed through Fantastico by users. I suspect that a lot of these are instances where users may have wanted to try out a script, but then forgot about the install and just left it. The problem with this is that these scripts remain active on your account even if you aren’t using them. If you installed Drupal to test it out, but never removed the installation, then you may have a very old version of Drupal setting on your account. These scripts have new vulnerabilities and exploits discovered in them all the time and the key to avoiding issues is to keep the script up-to-date. If the Drupal install is not being kept up-to-date, then it could make you vulnerable to a hack or other malicious activity on your account.

The plain and simple version of all of this is to delete any unused scripts off of your account and keep any used scripts up-to-date.

Following this advise will help to keep your account up and running and avoid any potential hackings and website defacements.

I am going to be working on a notification system where we can e-mail you about outdated Fantastico scripts that are installed on your account. Look for a notice either later this week or sometime early next week concerning your outdated Fantastico script installations.

Now would be a good time to insure that your contact information with us is up-to-date. You can update your contact information either in your control panel or by visiting:

http://www.amshelp.com

Steven