It's worse
It's even worse now.. completely deleted the connection .php file, removed the .htaccess file from the root completely, set PHP version to 5.6 for this site, and I can't even get a database connection. Trying to build a connection file, I get:
1. There is no testing server running on the server machine.
2. The testing server specified for htis site does not map to....
Attaching .ste file...
..theoretically, SSL has been removed from the equation completely, and I still can't get connected.