Error establishing a database connection
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Error establishing a database connection is a common error message often shown as big bold text on sites (often WordPress, nearly daily across sites) that have experienced a loss of connection between their web server (software) and their database server (software).
Examples
- Specific example found during another Google search: http://krispysbytes.org/tag/publish-once-syndicate-everywhere/ - page returns
<!DOCTYPE html> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <title>Database Error</title> </head> <body> <h1>Error establishing a database connection</h1> </body> </html>
- 2022-11-06 Recent semi-notable example: http://achangeiscoming.net/2017/05/10/lessons-mastodon-independent-social-networks/
Actual content was last archived 2022-01-19: https://web.archive.org/web/20220119053415/http://achangeiscoming.net/2017/05/10/lessons-mastodon-independent-social-networks/"Error establishing a database connection / This either means that the username and password information in your wp-config.php file is incorrect or …"
- 2016-03-28…2017 https://web.archive.org/web/20160328154426/http://flatfrogblog.com/ — a WordPress installation as of the most recent non-error archive, subsequently as of 2019 hosting and/or domain appear to have been lost.
- Notable example: blog post of notes from FSWS2010 as of 2019: https://web.archive.org/web/20190405122742/http://ozten.com/psto/2010/07/19/federated-social-web-summit-notes/
Find Examples
- Google "Database+Connection+Lost"
- Google "Database Error" "Error establishing a database connection" for actual sites that are down and indexed as such.
- Nearly daily occurrence across sites: https://twitter.com/search?q=%22Error%20establishing%20a%20database%20connection%22&src=typed_query&f=live
Phishing abuse of
phishers use it as a way to trick WordPress users into submitting their username/pw: