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HostGator is a pretty ok host. I’ve had a hosting account with them for awhile and recently had to upgrade one of my sites to use PHP version 5.3+.
Enable PHP 5.3+ with via .htaccess
Open the site’s .htaccess file that you want to upgrade the PHP version in your favorite editor and add the following to top of the file:
# Use PHP 5.3 AddHandler application/x-httpd-php53 .php suPHP_ConfigPath /opt/php53/lib
Refresh your website and you should see in your PHP info that your are indeed now using PHP version 5.3+. Hope this helps my fellow HostGatorers!