UPDATE:
As of Feb. 2010, PHP register_globals has been disabled on all NanoServers shared hosting servers. As indicated below, register_globals is a discontinued technology that should not be required by any modern PHP application.
What changes to PHP are taking place?
Support for the register_globals functionality in PHP on NanoServerss shared web hosting servers will be discontinued in waves through Dec. 2009 and Jan. 2010. Each customer will be notified individually about the discontinuation schedule for your site.
Why are you making these changes to register_globals?
Running PHP on a server with "register_globals On" can lead to serious security compromises of the server due to poorly/improperly coded PHP scripts. The register_globals feature has long been discouraged ("deprecated") and is being removed from future PHP versions.
The PHP Group (the developers responsible for creating PHP) recognized the potential dangers in the register_globals feature, and upon the release of PHP 4.1.0 in December 2001, officially recommended all users "... change [PHP] applications to work in an environment where register_globals is set to off". When PHP 4.2.0 was released in April 2002, the default setting for register_globals was changed to off. 8 years after first announcing that register_globals were going away, the PHP Group has made good on that promise. register_globals are officially deprecated as of PHP 5.3.0 and are removed completely from PHP 5.4.0.
In keeping with NanoServerss plans to continually update and improve our shared hosting platform, and in order to ensure a secure hosting environment, we have made the decision to discontinue support for register_globals.
How does the discontinuation of register_globals affect me?
If the PHP scripts and applications on your website rely on register_globals functionality, they WILL stop functioning properly when register_globals are turned off. You MUST verify that your PHP code is ready to operate without register_globals.
How do I know if my PHP code is dependent on register_globals?
If you are running a 3rd-party PHP application, you should check the documentation to see whether it requires register_globals or not. We list the compatibility of some popular 3rd-party PHP applications at the end of this article.
If your site uses custom-written code, you should check with the codes author to see if it requires register_globals.
One thing you can do to test if your site is dependent on register_globals is to manually switch them off for your site. Follow the directions in this Knowledge Base article to turn off register_globals for your site. Once register_globals are off, you should test all the PHP pages on your site to see if they work properly. Pay particular attention to pages that take user input or pass variables or session data.
How can I fix my site so that it will work with register_globals off?
If you find that your site does not function properly with register_globals off, you WILL need to update your PHP code.
If you are using a 3rd-party PHP application package, you should check to see if there is an upgrade to a newer version which does not require register_globals. We list the compatibility of some popular 3rd-party PHP applications at the end of this article.
If you wrote the PHP code yourself, or your site has custom-written PHP code, the code will need to be updated to current coding standards. Here are some articles which explain the differences between coding with register_globals on and off. The first article, in particular, has good information and examples for coders used to coding with register_globals on.
Popular 3rd-party PHP applications
