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- QUESTION:
- What is .htaccess? ...Creating a .htaccess file
ANSWER: - What is .htaccess?
You should not USE/EDIT your .htaccess file if you do not already have SSH access.
ALSO, the instructions located here are self-contained... meaning, we DO NOT provide ANY technical instruction or help beyond the instructions show here. .htaccess is a VERY ADVANCED topic, and we WILL NOT assist you in creating or editing your .htaccess file.
OTHER than custom error pages (which you must create at your OWN RISK, and on your own), there is no REAL need for 99% of all webmasters to need to edit their .htaccess file, because of the fact that we already provide functions to perform common tasks that would have otherwise required you to edit this file.
Important Note: Do not edit the .htaccess file if you are using MS Frontpage! Frontpage uses the .htaccess file, and editing it may cause errors in your configuration.
The .htaccess file can be placed in one or more of your /home/username/domainname-www subdirectories. Among other things, this file can be used to restrict access to other files and web pages.
When a request for a web page is made, the web server first checks for an .htaccess file. The server begins this check by looking for .htaccess in the root of the current web directory, and on down the directory tree until it reaches the the directory where the requested file resides. Since the placement of the .htaccess file determines when it is executed, this fact can be used to restrict access only in certain subdirectories.
Functions:
1) Restrict access to directories using passwords.
2) Redirect hits onto another webpage.
3) Control and set the messages generated for various error conditions.
4) Edit Mime-types.
5) Activate and deactivate various server features.
To create an .htaccess file, make a text file as described below and upload it as:
.htaccess
Except for the first function, these will only work for an .htaccess file placed in $-www. Add whichever functions you want to the same file.
Restricting Access: Password Protection
The directory you want protected must have an .htaccess file in it that looks like the following (do not put the comments in the actual .htaccess file):
AuthUserFile /home/username/.passwd
AuthGroupFile /home/username/.group
AuthName "Protected Space"
AuthType Basic
require group users #users is the group of users that you give access to this directory.
#require user username #if there is only one user in the group, you can substitute this line; remove the #.
(Other possible groups are administrators, etc)
Groups and users are stored in the .group file, and passwords are stored in .passwd. The .htaccess file looks for these files in the /home/username/ directory. Do not attempt to edit these manually!
Redirects
Redirecting allows you to send the user to, for example, new.html when they attempt to access old.html. To see this example in practice, simply add the following line to the .htaccess file:
Redirect /directoryname/old.html http://domainname.com/directoryname/new.html
Error Documents
There are two main styles of error messages you may encounter. The first is the standard form, which looks something like:
File Not found
The requested URL domainname.com/filenamme.html was not found on this server.
The second type comes in a variety of forms, but is customized by the webmaster. For example:
Sorry
We're sorry, but the requested URL does not exist. Please e-mail support@domainname.com if you need further assistance.
Such messages are called error documents, and are web pages designed to give a polite explanation for error conditions. These error conditions generate numbers which are used to refer to the appropriate error condition. Some of the most common messages are as follows:
Error in Client
400 Bad syntax
401 Unauthorized
402 Not Used (Payment Granted)
403 Forbidden
404 Not Found
Error in Server
500 Internal Error
501 Not Implemented
502 Overloaded
503 Gateway Timeout
How to Customize Error Messages for Your Site
First, create the HTML page you want to use as your error message.
Upload it to your domainname-www directory.
Next, go into your .htaccess file (or create one) and add lines which specify the substitution.
Here are three examples of specifying error documents which will be called for a given error condition (note you can use relative or absolute addressing):
ErrorDocument 401 http://domainname.com/nopasswd.html
ErrorDocument 403 /forbidden.html
ErrorDocument 404 http://www.domainname.com/nofile.html
Mime Types
You can add mime types to your .htaccess file with a line like:
AddType text/html .txt
Eddie
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