My website is in meltdown! Can anyone help?

Hackbridge · 03-07-2009, 06:09 PM

I changed the .htaccess file at the root of my website brian-morgan.info<--- index of and it's gone to pot!

If I put the htaccess file back in I get a 404 error. Take it out and I see all of the files at the root. If I place "index.html" at the end of the url I get a 404 message, and to make it worse it's affected my affiliate directory "Recommends" as well, so I can't see any pages. I get a 404 message. This is the same for some of the other directories. My download directory's exposed so I had to put the .htaccess file in that so the files were hidden with a 404 error message. And I shouldn't have to do that!

I contacted hostgator and they couldn't do anything to help. I can't really use the site like this but it's my main site for promoting stuff so I'd really like to sort the problem out.

Hope someone can help me out??

Thanks in advance. I'm in the UK, and I need to get to bed but will answer any questions - if there are any?

Brian

n7 Studios · 03-07-2009, 08:30 PM

Hi Brian,

I can help you with this. I'm also in the UK and up at this early hour - but appreciate you may not be around.

I've PMd you via Skype anyway, so hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks,

Tim.

Hackbridge · 03-08-2009, 08:25 AM

Thank you Tim n7 Studios - Web Development, Design and IT Support
for resolving the problem.

And thank you to everyone who contacted me with offers of help. Much appreciated.

Brian

Hackbridge · 03-08-2009, 06:40 PM

Tim told me via Skype

Quote:

It seems on Hostgator you have to define your DirectoryIndex in the .htaccess to point to a HTML file. I've not used Hostgator that much before, it seems an odd setup.

Each web site host usually has a list of allowed "index" filenames that it'll go to first when someone visits your URL. They usually include index.htm, index.html, index.php and a few others - but I'm guessing with Hostgator, they don't include index.html as a "default" index / landing page - so the htaccess file has to expressly tell the server to allow index.html files.

As I said, it's really bizarre - not something I'd come across in many years, and it may be worth querying this with Hostgator again (provided they don't charge you for support on a ticket - by - ticket basis), to see what they say or suggest.

The text in the .htaccess file reads:

Quote:

RedirectEngine on
DirectoryIndex index.html

Tim had it fixed in literally no time. I tried swapping the htaccess files but with no success. It's the "RedirectEngine on" that I have never seen and would never have known if it were not for Tim. I highly recommend his services. He has an Ad going on the classified, so this is just my way of saying thank you.

Hope this helps some?

Brian

Quote:

Originally Posted by rafmandu

What was the solution? I usually copy the .htaccess from a different folder or recreate it from scratch. What did you do?

03-07-2009, 06:09 PM	#1
Hackbridge My Time Is Coming! War Room Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom. Posts: 1,666 Blog Entries: 6 Thanks: 739 Thanked 172 Times in 151 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	My website is in meltdown! Can anyone help? I changed the .htaccess file at the root of my website brian-morgan.info<--- index of and it's gone to pot! If I put the htaccess file back in I get a 404 error. Take it out and I see all of the files at the root. If I place "index.html" at the end of the url I get a 404 message, and to make it worse it's affected my affiliate directory "Recommends" as well, so I can't see any pages. I get a 404 message. This is the same for some of the other directories. My download directory's exposed so I had to put the .htaccess file in that so the files were hidden with a 404 error message. And I shouldn't have to do that! I contacted hostgator and they couldn't do anything to help. I can't really use the site like this but it's my main site for promoting stuff so I'd really like to sort the problem out. Hope someone can help me out?? Thanks in advance. I'm in the UK, and I need to get to bed but will answer any questions - if there are any? Brian
	Lots of website templates & stuff at an INSANE price! - Nerf Guns & Stuff - Search For THAT Article You Wanted - How To Make Money Writing Articles - Adsense Tutorial - Create Mobile Websites Search - Auto Installed Blogs Last edited by Hackbridge; 03-07-2009 at 06:11 PM. Reason: Added more stuff to hopefully explain.

03-07-2009, 08:30 PM	#2
n7 Studios Web Developer, IT Support War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Birmingham, UK Posts: 513 Thanks: 10 Thanked 77 Times in 65 Posts Social Networking	Re: My website is in meltdown! Can anyone help? Hi Brian, I can help you with this. I'm also in the UK and up at this early hour - but appreciate you may not be around. I've PMd you via Skype anyway, so hope to hear from you soon. Thanks, Tim.
	THE Web Development Guru - Wordpress / Magento / iOS Bespoke Dev. HTML5, CSS3, PHP, MySQL. -- UK Internet Marketing Community.

03-08-2009, 08:25 AM	#3
Hackbridge My Time Is Coming! War Room Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom. Posts: 1,666 Blog Entries: 6 Thanks: 739 Thanked 172 Times in 151 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: My website is in meltdown! Can anyone help? Thank you Tim n7 Studios - Web Development, Design and IT Support for resolving the problem. And thank you to everyone who contacted me with offers of help. Much appreciated. Brian
	Lots of website templates & stuff at an INSANE price! - Nerf Guns & Stuff - Search For THAT Article You Wanted - How To Make Money Writing Articles - Adsense Tutorial - Create Mobile Websites Search - Auto Installed Blogs