Reactivating a dormant site that appears to be infected

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  joncarrollprose · Member · Aug 7, 2025 at 4:05 am

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  I’m helping the owner of a WordPress blog with a custom domain registered with GoDaddy. The blog has been inactive for seven years, and although the domain is live the site does not load — it appears to be infected with at least one virus. We’d like to get it back up and running. I’m not an IT person, just a friend with some WordPress experience. Any advice on resolving this problem?

  WP.com: Yes
  Jetpack: No
  Correct account: Yes

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  staartmees · Member · Aug 7, 2025 at 4:35 am

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  We can’t help as that site wasn’t running on the wordpress.com platform. That domain expired in December 2024 and has been bought by someone else. there is no way to claim ‘your’ domain.

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  kaichicha · Member · Aug 7, 2025 at 4:44 am

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  Hi @joncarrollprose,
  
  Thank you for reaching out, and I’m sorry to hear about your site, joncarrollprose.com.
   
  Upon checking, I discovered your website is a self-hosted site using the open-source WordPress software (https://wordpress.org). We wouldn’t have access to it here at WordPress.com, as we are a managed hosting service, not linked with your hosting provider Linode. We explain the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org in the link below.
  https://wordpress.com/support/com-vs-org/#are-wordpress-org-and-wordpress-com-the-same-thing
   
  I recommend reaching out to Linode for tailored assistance. You can refer to this link for information on where your website is hosted.
  https://wordpress.com/site-profiler/joncarrollprose.com
  
   Let me know if you have other questions