301 Redirects

[woolnstuff]

Hi

I'm setting up 301 redirects but I'm a little unsure where to put the .htaccess file on the server. I'm using Actinic hosting with Plesk Control Panel. I know I'm meant to put it in the root folder is this the first folder you come to or the httpdocs where the index file is?

Thanks

Vickie

[Chunkford]

Where the index is

[woolnstuff]

Hi

Thanks for that I've put the .htaccess file where the index file is but it doesn't seem to be working. I've created the file as follows:

Redirect 301 http://www.woolnstuff.co.uk/about-us-361-0.html http://www.woolnstuff.co.uk/acatalog/About_Us.html
Redirect 301 http://www.woolnstuff.co.uk/contact-us-344-0.html http://www.woolnstuff.co.uk/cgi-bin/...CTION=SHOWFORM

etc is this correct?

Thanks

Vickie

[Chunkford]

try this instead

Redirect 301 /about-us-361-0.html http://www.woolnstuff.co.uk/acatalog/About_Us.html
Redirect 301 /contact-us-344-0.html http://www.woolnstuff.co.uk/cgi-bin/mf000001.pl?ACTION=SHOWFORM

[woolnstuff]

I'm getting even more confused. I've spoken to the technical support people and they tell me the root folder is httpdocs however when I load the .htaccess file to this folder the website is unavailable (comes up with server error). The minute I remove the .htaccess file from httpdocs the website becomes accessible again. Any ideas?

Thanks

Vickie

[feemish]

I dont know your server set up, but on mine the httaccess file should be in the folder called 'public_html' thats also the folder where the main site index file should be too. As I say your server might be set up differently, but thought I'd mention it.. if you have a folder called public_html try putting it in there and see if it works.

[Chunkford]

Do you have anything else in your .htaccess file apart from what I posted earlier?

How are you uploading the .htaccess file? Are using a FTP client (e.g. filezilla) or through Plesk?

[woolnstuff]

Hi

There is nothing else in the htaccess file and I FTP it through Filezilla. The server (Actinic hosting) is set up using the settings Actinic provided.
Vickie

[Chunkford]

This should sort it then.

RewriteEngine ON

Redirect 301 /about-us-361-0.html http://www.woolnstuff.co.uk/acatalog/About_Us.html
Redirect 301 /contact-us-344-0.html http://www.woolnstuff.co.uk/cgi-bin/mf000001.pl?ACTION=SHOWFORM

[woolnstuff]

Hi

Thanks for that, just tried it and exactly the same thing happens!! Any more ideas?

Thanks

Vickie

[BelmoreBoy]

worth checking when uploading an htaccess file written in notepad it often adds .txt extension to the end of the filename - just right click and rename text file removing .txt so it reads (.htaccess)

[Chunkford]

Strange. It works for me.

What server error are you getting?
What are you using to create the .htaccess file?

[woolnstuff]

Hi

I'm using notepad to creating the file and the encoding is set to ANSI. I get the following server error

500 Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator to inform of the time the error occurred and of anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

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

[AndyBorrett]

Have you tried just having the first redirect in the htaccess file - maybe it doesn't like the cgi bin part?

[woolnstuff]

Hi

Just spoken to the technical people and they have had me load up a blank .htaccess file when I do that we don't get a server error. There theory is something is wrong in the file and have suggested I try it one line and a time until I find out which line is the problem. I've added the following to the blank file

RewriteEngine ON

Redirect 301 about-us-361-0.html http://www.woolnstuff.co.uk/acatalog/About_Us.html

The server is working fine with this line in but when I try to access the page I get a 404.

Any ideas the pages are all from the same domain weve moved across from and unfortunately the page names had to change slightly?

Is it the format of the old pages ie the - between the words.

I really do appreciate all your help

Thanks

Vickie