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Posted by Rochelle in 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.
Hi Rochelle
I’m glad to see that you have your site up and running again. I hope it did not take too much of your time to sort out? How did you find Hostgator Support?
Out of interest, do we need to be worried about people stealing bandwidth and should we be protecting ourselves?
Denise
Denise,
First, a huge ‘Thank you!!’ for letting me know about the internal server error. It could have been hours before I realized this had you not emailed me.
HostGator support was pretty good, though not great. I got someone on their ‘Live Chat’ right away and he was helpful, if slow. He was able to get my Home page back up, but he couldn’t figure out why none of the links worked. He had me email their tech support, which I did. As of this writing I have yet to hear from a tech support.
After chatting with the tech rep, I looked at the .htaccess file I have backed up and compared it to the one on my server. They were different so I tried using the older, backed up one, and that solved the link problem. If I hadn’t tried that my site would still be mostly dead.
As to worrying about people stealing bandwidth, it can be a big issue, but it’s not such a huge issue that you need to worry. I happened to see the link in my cPanel and enabled it. BIG MISTAKE!! I have this habit of getting myself into trouble by doing things like that when I’m not entirely sure of the consequences. Lesson learned (this time, but I’m sure there will be another lesson to learn down the road…).
Rochelle
“I have this habit of getting myself into trouble by doing things like that when I’m not entirely sure of the consequences”
Regarding this comment, this is how 99% of people learn how to use computers, and IMO, the best method.
Between you and Mark, an excellent job. BANS would be next to useless without you two. Keep it up!
Computers and the whole web is about pushing the limits. Remember when they “sky is falling” crowd said we could never get more that 128K out of a memory chip?
Thanks for giving me a little “chuckle” this evening! LOL We all do things like that from time to time. I have a friend that is an IT Tech Support, and she does stuff like that all of the time. So I totally agree with what Steve said, it’s definitely how we learn…from our mistakes.
Glad to see the site back up and running!
Ruthies last blog post..My Newest BANS Store Might Just Be My Ticket!!
Rochelle, you crack me up! I thought I was the only one who went, “hey I wonder what’ll happen if I push this button?” and brought something crashing down.
Glad you were able to recover – that was a close one!
Alice
Now that the crisis is over I can chuckle along with the rest of you. I’ll confess that the worst thing I’ve done is delete my operating system (back in the pre-Windows day) because I wanted to install a different version. I quickly learned that a computer won’t boot if it doesn’t have an operating system in it… Another lesson learned
Glad to see you are back up and running Rochelle,love your site and the ideas you give us all.Just remember the old saying:
If it ain’t broke,don’t fix it!
Anyhow,welcome back and keep up your good work.
Alan.
Heck, no! My motto is:
Work on it until it is broke, then sweat bullets trying to undo the damage.
Rochelle
LOL Rochelle,
My heart actually skipped a beat reading this because I have had the Exact thing happen. Hair Straight back and wide eyed, trying to figure out what I did and how to undo:) Scary stuff. But yet, that button, that new plugin…..how can one resist just a little bitty click to see what happens:)
You mentioned that you had a back up of your data files. What is the easiest way to back those files up? I have a WordPress site, and a Simple Machine Forum and I have been ’scared’ to do anything (the last experience was a doozy). However, if one can simply back up data/code before we start pressing buttons, well then we can click to our hearts content, which will greatly expedite the self taught Webmaster in the learning process.
Cheers,
Jeromy
Jeromys last blog post..create professional cd internet sales business With PLR
Jeromy,
The file I had backed up was one that I had downloaded with an FTP program. All I did was download all the files for this site to my computer. I do that every now and then for all my sites.
I also have a plugin that automatically backs up my site’s database at whatever interval I have chosen, which is daily. I can either have it email the database to me or have it saved to my computer (I have it emailed).
And, yes, the temptation of one little click is too strong to resist!
Rochelle
Ok backing up the website makes senes. I can use my Fillzilla setup for that. But, what plugin do you use to backup your database? I know I have a database, but I no idea what to do with it manually, so definately should be backed up regularily.
I went through a simular “back it Up” lesson with my HD’s. It can not be stressed enough, Back it Up!
Thanks so much for the post,
Jeromy
The plugin I use to automatically backup my database is called wp-db-backup. You can download it from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-db-backup/.
Rochelle