A few days ago I wrote about how I killed this blog.  The way I killed it was by choosing an option in my hosting account’s cPanel.  My intention was good, as I thought I’d protect my sites from people stealing my bandwidth, but the result of this action was disastrous.  I just didn’t know how disastrous until now, and I found it totally by accident.  Fortunately for me, I found this out today and not a month from now.

Here’s what happened: Earlier today I got an email from someone responding to a USFreeads ad I have listed.  When I answer questions I like to include a link to whatever page in my niche store is relevant to the person’s question.  So, I went to my niche store (no problem yet) and clicked on a store page.  Enter problem.

My site’s ‘Home’ page is fine.  But when I clicked on a store page I was taken to a 400 error message.  I didn’t know what this message means (still don’t, nor do I care to know) other than people aren’t able to go anywhere in this site. 

Slightly panicked, I checked another one of my niche stores.  Same problem.  All looked well on the ‘Home’ page but none of the links worked.

This was the same problem I had with this blog after I killed it. I wondered if the problem was in the .htaccess file so I looked at it.  Nothing stood out, but I’m not very skilled at reading .htaccess codes so this didn’t mean much.

I had no idea what to do to fix this problem, since the .htaccess file for this blog is very different than my niche stores.  Figuring I couldn’t do any more damage than I’d already done, I copied the .htaccess code from my most recent Build A Niche Store download and replaced the code on my niche store with the copied code.  It worked!  My site was back and ready for visitors.

The reason I am writing this post is to share this experience with you.  I knew I had done damage two days ago.  At that time I checked each site by looking at each site’s ‘Home’ page.  It didn’t occur to me to click links.

So, I highly recommend you check your sites every so often.  But don’t just look at them.  Click links.  Make sure your sites are working the way you intend them to. 

Had I not received an email for a USFreeads ad today I might not have realized my sites were basically down for who knows how long?  (shudder…)

Checking your sites is a good idea even if you haven’t been playing with settings in your cPanel.  Hackers may have attacked your sites and you won’t know unless someone tells you or you check your sites.

Rochelle

If you caught the first webinar Michelle MacPhearson did earlier this week, on keyword research, then you already know that Michelle and her guest ran out of time.  They scheduled another webinar for tonight (06/26/2008) at 6:30pm EST.  If you want to catch this then sign up at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/714492771.  Even if you missed the first part there will surely be good information tonight.

FYI - If you sign up then you need to call in to the phone number you are given in order to hear audio.  I didn’t realize this and missed part of the first call.  I kept waiting to hear something then finally decided to call in, and then I was able to hear.

Lastly, Michelle will make these calls available for those who don’t attend the live webinars. So even if you can’t make it you can still hear it later.

Rochelle

If any of you have my BANS Toolbar installed and  updated your Firefox browsers to version 3 then you already know that the BANS Toolbar is not (yet) compatible with FF3.  Many people have sent me emails asking when I will update it so they can use the toolbar with FF3.

Well, here’s the deal.  I want to update the toolbar to FF3 but am currently unable to.  The software I use to create the toolbar is working on an update so that toolbar will be compatible with FF3.  Technically, they’ve already done this but I can’t get their fix to work.  I have emailed their tech support and sent them my toolbar and am waiting to hear back from them.  I have no idea how long it will take for them to respond.

So, I want to let all BANS Toolbar users know that I am working on this but don’t know how much longer it will take. 

Also, if you intend to update Firefox to v3 then I suggest you uninstall the BANS Toolbar before doing this or you may get errors after you update your browser.  Be aware that other extensions you have installed may not work, either.  I updated my browser and at least five other extensions don’t yet have updates to work with FF3.

Rochelle

Hi there,

Chances are good that you can read this post but won’t be able to access any links on my site.  Earlier, you may have even seen a ‘505 internal error’ message.

Well, turns out I did this to myself.  Just prior to this happening I had logged into my cPanel and enabled the ‘HotLink Protection’ option (to keep thieves from stealing my bandwidth).  As soon as I did that, this site went down.

There was one image on this site that was located on another site on my hosting account.  Even though both images are hosted on the same account, cPanel thought I was stealing bandwidth and killed this site.  I am working with HostGator to get this fixed.  The first tech guy I chatted with was able to bring back the home page, but couldn’t fix the link problem.  I’ve just sent a desperate email to HostGator’s tech support but have no idea how long it will take for them to respond.

Until then, if anyone has ANY ideas regarding why this happened or how I might fix it, I’m all ears.

Edit: I just realized that no one can leave comments.  If you have any idea for me please email it to rochelle at nichestorestrategies dot com.

Rochelle

Edit: I’ve fixed the site.  I had a backup of the .htaccess file and uploaded that to my server.  That did it.  Phew!  Boy, this wasn’t a fun experience but it did reinforce the value of keeping backups of sites.