Need fast help please! My site is crashed. Right now - Sat, Aug 2nd

Yikes!

[PFOnline]

I was just doing something in my sites "control panel" with redirecting URL's and now my ENTIRE site which receives quite a large number of visitors a day is giving a "500 internal server error" for all pages! including the forum.

I'm freakin' out. I've contacted my web hosting company but am still waiting for a response.

Could it possibly have something to do with CHMOD's? I just checked my root directory (called "html") and it's CHMOD'd to 711... Should it be something different? Is it possible somehow this got changed?

Or anyone else have any ideas while I wait for a response?

[john316]

> redirecting URL's

Sounds like you did something to the .htaccess file.

Can you see the .htaccess with your ftp client?

[mack]

try chmod'ing your root directory to 777. If this enables you to see pages then it will be a problem with permissions. Hopefully someone else will respond and explain a bit more about what these permissions should be.

If you are running cgi's try setting these to 755. This should allow the scripts to excecute.

Hope you get a more specific response from someone with a little more server admin knowledge.

Good luck.

Mack.

[Visit Thailand]

If you were doing redirects then it is probably as John316 above says a problem with .htaccess

[mack]

Yea agreed with the previous 2 posts.

If your htaccess file resides within the root then you may have prevented this by working if you used the wrong file permissions. Try chmod your .htaccess file to 777.

If this doesnt work have a look through and check your syntax.

Hope this helps.

Mack.

[PFOnline]

You guys are GENIUSES! It was the .htaccess file! I downloaded it with my FTP, noticed one of the URL redirects i made in there, deleted it, re-uploaded the .htaccess and the site is back up!

That was a long 30 minutes or so of my life, lol.

Thanks sooooooo much!

John, mack, and thailand! :)

Site's fully functional and back up now!

Whew!

Hope Google didn't try visiting my site in that time it was down, hehe.

Can't thank you guys enough for the fast help!

<takes deep breath> lol

And the forum didn't crash and lose posts either, phew.

Thanks again!

Cheers!
PFOnline

[mack]

Glad you won the battle.

It always amazes me that it is always something so simple, yet we always look for more complexed answers. When I break a site generaly panic sets in.

Nice one.

Mack.

[PFOnline]

Hehe, yep... I think you can safely say I was panicked there too. Was more afraid I would have another message board crash, (where it would lose all members and posts... it has happened before in the past) or by Murphy's law Google would visit the site while it was down.

But glad to report the message board's fine and everything's back to normal. :)

[keyplyr]

PFOnline - I learned the hard way to always create a back-up copy the file prior to any changes, even if my ego tells me it's no big deal.

[jdMorgan]

PF,

OK, one of my very rare "Me too" posts...
I heartily second keyplyr's post.

"Up,
And down,
And in the end, it's only 'round and 'round,
and 'round..."

And if we're talking 500 server errors or infinite rewrite loops here, a backup can really, really save the day!

Jim

[Visit Thailand]

Gald you have it fixed. As said above I also always make a back up whenever touching anything as important as .htaccess

Once had a similar problem to you with ISE 500's and finally discovered there was one full stop in the wrong place which was making the errors.

Having the bck up means you can instantly go back to your old working version while you debug the problematic one.

[Imaster]

This issue brings to my mind the importance of online forums, specifically Webmasterworld, because of which we all are able to help each other out, solve queries, and learn newer things :)

Long live WW!