1. Upgrade to PHP 5.3

In consequence of PHP 5.2 reaching its end-of-life and being no longer supported, we have upgraded to PHP 5.3 on Monday, the 30th of April, 2012 at 23:00 GMT+1.

While this upgrade should not cause any major issues for most web sites, it will probably cause some incompatibility issues for older scripts that have been developed prior the release of PHP 5.3. In order to prevent these incompatibility issues, it is highly advised that you upgrade all your scripts immediately. Besides, we always recommend keeping all your scripts up-to-date most importantly for security reasons.

2. Upgrade to MySQL 5.5

cPanel now supports MySQL 5.5 and we have also upgraded to this version.

This new MySQL version has better scalability on multi-core hardware, is more reliable, and performs by up to 370% faster on Linux! A full list of what's new in MySQL 5.5 is available on the official site at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/mysql-nutshell.html

There are no known issues that we expect in connection with this upgrade.

3. Closure of MySQL remote port

Currently, the MySQL remote connections are accessible from any IP address without restrictions. This can pose a security threat since hackers can attempt to break into MySQL. In order to close this vulnerability, the MySQL port for remote connections (3306) has been blocked.

If you require remote access to your MySQL databases, you'll need to provide us with the static IP address of the computer you'll be connecting from so we can add an exception to our firewall. Alternatively, if you have SSH access for your account, you can setup an SSH tunnel to forward the MySQL port.

Setting up an SSH tunnel with PuTTY (Windows)
How to Connect to MySQL via SSH Tunnel (Linux)

As always, if you experience any issues after these changes, our technical support department will be happy to assist you.

The mail server (POP3/IMAP) has been switched from Courier to Dovecot on all servers.

While Courier did a great job over the years, Dovecot birgs a few more advantages, such as:

• Lower memory footprint.
• Highly configurable.
• Better IMAP performance.
• BlackBerry® Fastmail support.

As always, if you experience any difficulties, please don't hesitate to contact our technical support team through our helpdesk or email at support@maxterhost.com. Thank you!