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I recently started a WordPress blog using hosting at MyDomain (they offer the application "natively"). The blog works fine, however I have two plugins I can't seem to install correctly.

First, the WordPress.com Stats plugin requires the API Key. When I input it, I get the following message:

Error from last API Key attempt:

Your blog was unable to connect to WordPress.com. Please ask your host for help. (transport error - could not open socket: 110 Connection timed out)

Second, the Akismet plugin is not configured. When I go to Akismet page to insert my API key, it has the following message:

There was a problem connecting to the Akismet server. Please check your server configuration.

I assume the two issues are related... I approached my hosting provider about the subject and all they said is that they don't support WordPress, only provide means to install it.

To clarify, up to this point I have only been able to install plugins that don't require an API key.

What can I do to diagnose the problem and fix it? As a work-around, are there comparable stats and anti-spam plugins that don't require an API key?

Many thanks.

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2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

It almost seems like your hosting provider is blocking outbound connections with a firewall. I am not familiar with exactly what needs to be open to allow wordpress to work, but you might want to ask your hosting provider if they are running a firewall that would block these conections.

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how can they possibly be blocking outbound connections?! It's a web server, if it had no outbound connections it wouldn't be a web server. If they ARE blocking outbound connections, ditch them immediately. It's possible that they're blocking DNS resolution but if they are then ditch them too. –  Mark Henderson Aug 20 '09 at 21:18
by "outbound" he means TCP connections being established by the server, not to the server. As opposed to "outgoing" packets which, as you say, have to be permitted in order for a TCP connection to be established and convey data. –  jrg Aug 20 '09 at 21:52
Well, I ditched them... Thanks. –  Roee Adler Aug 24 '09 at 8:52
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Ask you hosting provider if they allow outbound connections from the server. They may deny this for security and it can be the problem.

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