Free webspace not serving my page Not Found [CFN #0005]

[#1]

@UncleZen
You do not have the means to do this. Your website might run on their hardware but Plusnet chose to put it there to minimise support costs on their legacy CCGI service. Plusnet have a contract with Hostopia, you haven’t. I believe Plusnet are provided with a control panel for supporting their customers.

[#2]

I'm with you there @spraxyt

Im getting precisely nowhere with this. Ive raised a support ticket and the support team dont really get it.

Anyway, Ive done a bit more analysis:

To summarise, its the websites on the webspace that will not be served. NOT The hostopia portal.
Its the websites at these URL's
http://ccgi.unclezen.plus.com/
http://ccgi.unclezen.plus.com/dev/onwbc/
http://ccgi.unclezen.plus.com/dev/faos/

These are a few examples. Click on the links and you'll get: Not Found [CFN #0005]
I've inspected the http headers and its a 404 returned from the webserver.
But as you can see from the hostopia login the files are there.
So, this suggests to me that the webserver is serving pages becase its returned a 404 (if the webserver wasnt working you wouldnt get a 404). But as I mentioned the files are there so my guess is that the webserver is mis configured and not pointing to the right file location.
Also, FTP works as expected.

[#3]

This is still not resolved.

Either Plusnet are unable or unwilling to resolve this.

I'm being fobbed off with some third party BS.

TBH, the only reason I re-signed with PN was because of this free webspace, without it, I'll shop around for a better BB deal elsewhere.

[#4]

Hi @UncleZen,

I can see that a ticket has been raised and assigned to the relevant team. They will get back in touch with you and respond to your message. Thank you for your patience.

[#5]

@Beyhive 

Still waiting for support. That support ticket was opened on Sept 20th. No response from Support since Sept 26th.

Just saying.

[#6]

HI @UncleZen, thanks for your post.

We're sorry to hear of this.

I've just spoken personally with the advisor that's handling your ticket and you'll receive a response this evening.

Please let us know if you need any further assistance.

[#7]

I discovered on Thursday afternoon, that this is now fixed. I wasnt told by anyone at PlusNet then, and still havent been told now that this is fixed.

[#8 · Accepted solution]

Apparently the cause was the .htaccess file.

Ive never had the need to create or amend such a file. So I dont know how it became changed and what caused it to make the site behave in such a way. It remains a mystery.

[#9]

Thanks for getting back to us @UncleZen I can see Hostopia fixed this on Thursday by disabling the .htaccess file, but we didn't relay this over to yourself until Friday evening. 

A .htaccess file is a username/password file where encrypted data is stored, it's not something we can make from our side. I suspect at some point in the time you've been with us, you would've made it (It has been a long time!)

Anyways I'm glad to see this is all sorted out now  let us know if there's anything else you'd need help with.

[#10]

.htaccess files are text files used to provide hints to the server. In certain circumstances they can provide configuration information for PHP.
Many users regard them as a black art. Certainly best left alone if not comprehensively understood. I guess that applies here.

[#11]

It might be helpful to add that.htaccess files are a fundamental contributor to mod-rewrite which provides mapping between the external, logical view of the file system and its physical implementation on the server.
One major problem with them is a syntax error usually results in a “configuration error 500” which the mark 1 eyeball is needed to diagnose and fix.
Transferring.htaccess files from PC to server requires an ASCII transfer. If a binary transfer creeps in an error 500 will be on its way 😳