Webspace error message

geoff · Jul 17, 2008, 19:07:08

My webspace has a file named index.html, but I am getting the following error message:

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, you@example.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Could someone please suggest what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks.

Geoff

Rik · Jul 17, 2008, 19:10:24

What were you doing at the time, Geoff, what is contained in your index file?

geoff · Jul 17, 2008, 19:39:00

Thanks for coming back, Rik.

I was simply trying to access the webspace after someone had alerted me to the error message. I tried with Firefox and IE.

The index.html file contains the following:

<html>

<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<title>Ingredient of National Identity</title>
</head>

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">

<center>



Ingredient of National Identity: Beef and Britishness 
in the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 





PLANS ARCHIVE



<hr>



To access a plan: 

1. Click on its Word icon. 
2. Enter the password. 

<hr>

To edit a plan: 

1. Access it as above and save to hard disk. 
2. Open the document, using the password. 
3. In Word's Tools menu, click Options and then the Security tab. 
4. Delete the asterisks or dots representing the password. 
5. Save the document. It can now be edited. 

<hr>

Latest plan: 

Plan 2 (27 April 2008)  <a href="plan02.doc"><img src="word.jpg" align="top" alt="Word" width="16" height="16" border="0"></a> 

<hr>

Previous plans: 

Plan 1 (5 November 2007)  <a href="plan01.doc"><img src="word.jpg" align="top" alt="Word" width="16" height="16" border="0"></a>



<hr>

</center>

Archive last updated 27 April 2008


<script type="text/javascript">
sc_project=3544343;
sc_invisible=1;
sc_partition=39;
sc_security="7403499c";
</script>

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.statcounter.com/counter/counter_xhtml.js"></script><noscript><div class="statcounter"><a href="http://www.statcounter.com/free_hit_counter.html" target="_blank"><img class="statcounter" src="http://c40.statcounter.com/3544343/0/7403499c/1/" alt="hit counter html code" ></a></div></noscript>


</body>

</html>

Does that show where I'm going wrong?

Simon · Jul 17, 2008, 21:38:11

Hi Geoff,

Rik has probably gone for the evening now, and I'm sorry but I'm unable to interpret your code myself, but I would think someone will be along later to help.

In the meantime,

Oh, and I've split this off onto a new topic.

kinmel · Jul 17, 2008, 22:07:30

I have copied your text and created index.html from it and placed it in my idnet webspace and it works correctly ( except for the links obviously )

you can see it HERE

So the index.html is correct and the fault must be on thr server

geoff · Jul 17, 2008, 23:04:52

Quote from: kinmel on Jul 17, 2008, 22:07:30
I have copied your text and created index.html from it and placed it in my idnet webspace and it works correctly ( except for the links obviously )

you can see it HERE

So the index.html is correct and the fault must be on thr server

Thanks. The page was loading OK before the change to the webspace configuration and I haven't changed a single thing since. So I think I can now assume the problem is not at my end.

Simon · Jul 17, 2008, 23:43:42

I would suggest a call to IDNet in the morning, Geoff. They are usually very helpful.

Sebby · Jul 18, 2008, 00:31:47

HTML would not cause that error, even if it had been coded incorrectly.

Have you uploaded a .htaccess file by any chance, Geoff?

psp83 · Jul 18, 2008, 02:26:43

Internal Server Error is normally caused by a badly coded/wrote .htaccess file.

Log into your FTP. make sure you have "show hidden files" enabled.

Download the .htaccess (if there is one) and then open in notepad, paste the code in here and i will take alook.

Bare in mind. I'm at a funeral from 1pm tomorrow and away on holiday for a week from saturday. So if its posted after 1pm tomorrow i might get time to reply sat morning but if not, it will be a week later if no one else can help you!

geoff · Jul 18, 2008, 06:58:37

Thanks for the overnight replies.

I have not uploaded an ht.access file.

I have logged in to the webspace via my FTP utility, FileZilla, but I can't see anything about showing hidden files.

However, I must say again that I don't think that there's anything wrong with the content, as it was loading perfectly before the re-configuration.

Incidentally, the content is only four items: the index.html page plus one image and two Word files (to which index.html contains links).

geoff · Jul 18, 2008, 07:48:19

I have now tried this:

I deleted all the files in the webspace and uploaded one minimal index.html file coded as follows:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>TEST</title>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
</head>
<body>
This is a test.
</body>
</html>

And I still get the same error message.

Perhaps I should have mentioned earlier that it's error message 500.

Sebby · Jul 18, 2008, 08:50:44

Let IDNet know. If you haven't uploaded a .htaccess file, this is a server problem.

geoff · Jul 18, 2008, 11:25:10

I phoned IDNet a short time ago and they fixed the problem.

It turned out that there WAS an .htaccess file, but I didn't knowingly put it there - for the simple reason that I don't know what an .htaccess file is!

Unfortunately, as I mentioned previously, I hadn't been able to see the .htaccess file because I couldn't find any option in FileZilla that would reveal hidden files.

Anyway, end of story: I've now re-uploaded the content and it's working fine now.

So - thanks to those who helped.

Rik · Jul 18, 2008, 11:26:46

Glad you got there, Geoff.

psp83 · Jul 18, 2008, 12:11:59

htaccess file is used to change apache settings etc (could go into more but it will bore you).

So if theres a line of code trying to change an apache setting that idnet doesn't allow it sometimes throws up a "internal server error" message, same if the htaccess file is badly wrote.

Dopamine · Jul 18, 2008, 14:48:50

Quote from: geoff on Jul 18, 2008, 11:25:10
I phoned IDNet a short time ago and they fixed the problem.

It turned out that there WAS an .htaccess file, but I didn't knowingly put it there - for the simple reason that I don't know what an .htaccess file is!

Unfortunately, as I mentioned previously, I hadn't been able to see the .htaccess file because I couldn't find any option in FileZilla that would reveal hidden files.

Anyway, end of story: I've now re-uploaded the content and it's working fine now.

So - thanks to those who helped.

You're not alone. I started getting the same "internal server error" messages too, have never uploaded a htaccess file, and cannot see one either (using XP's FTP).

I contacted support who saw the same error, did something to the htaccess file - removed or changed it, not sure which - and now everything works fine. It looks as though the recent server changes may have altered some settings on some of the webspaces, but fortunately it's easily fixed.

Ted · Jul 18, 2008, 17:46:50

If you use FireFTP in Firefox You can log in, go to tools on the right hand side, select options and go to the general tab. There you have the option to show hidden files.

In Filezilla the option to view hidden files is under the server menu at the top.

Sebby · Jul 18, 2008, 18:45:48

Glad it's sorted, Geoff.

geoff · Jul 19, 2008, 11:45:31

Thanks to Ted for pointing out how to see hidden files via FileZilla.
There were some there, which I've now deleted without any harmful consequences.