Awesome articles and resources for webmasters

timjpriebe's picture

He has: 2,664 posts

Joined: Dec 2004

This may be the best htaccess resource I've ever run across:

Ultimate htaccess Article

There are some really neat tips in there, including...

- Forcing certain file types to download instead of displaying within browser
- Search engine friendly redirects
- Preventing hotlinking and bandwidth stealing

Very cool tips! Post here if you find something new or cool you didn't know about ahead of time.

Admin edit: this topic should be used to post links to interesting and useful articles. Please, no more "thanks for the useful link" posts. Those posts will be removed. If you really want to thank someone for posting a link, PM them.

Abhishek Reddy's picture

He has: 3,348 posts

Joined: Jul 2001

Very neat! It's like an Apache config cookbook. Great find, Tim. Smiling

I think this ought to be stickied.

They have: 1 posts

Joined: Feb 2011

hi how are you i am new over here and also i want to join you all thank you

JeevesBond's picture

He has: 3,952 posts

Joined: Jun 2002

Agreed, it has been stickied! Now I don't have to put it in my exponentially swelling pile-o-disorganised-bookmarks. Smiling

He has: 6 posts

Joined: Feb 2007

Thanks for the props guys, If you ever see any improvements or additions let me know, im always updating..

Abhishek Reddy's picture

He has: 3,348 posts

Joined: Jul 2001

Andy posted about this excellent site in General Chat: http://localhost80.com/ -- a simple page full of links to useful articles.

He has: 6 posts

Joined: Feb 2007

Force Apache to output any HTTP Status Code with ErrorDocument

I setup an automated system to view all 57 Apache Response codes and ErrorDocuments, saving the headers and returned content for future reference. Use this page as a reference when designing scripts that use headers. Ex: 404 Not Found, 200 OK, 304 Not-Modified, 506 Service Temporarily Unavailable, etc.

When a Status code is encountered, Apache serves the header and the ErrorDocument for the error code. So if you can see any Header and ErrorDocument by causing that error on Apache.

For instance, if you request a file that doesn’t exist, a 404 Not Found is issued and the corresponding ErrorDocument is served with the 404 Not Found Header. So we can see what Apache 404 Errors and Response Codes look like, but how do we cause errors for the 56 other Apache Response Codes?

papa-ante-portas's picture

She has: 12 posts

Joined: Jul 2005

yeah I like that one too! I only know the german equivalent to this...but this one is much more useful.
I like http://www.seoking.eu/seo-search-engine/ for looking up every question that comes in my mind regarding Search Engine Optimization. Ok I got to admit: I made it...but it´s really good and I care for it a lot.

They have: 9 posts

Joined: Jan 2008

You have some good webmaster resource and reference here. http://www.askapache.com/htaccess/apache-htaccess.html

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decibel.places's picture

He has: 1,497 posts

Joined: Jun 2008

I was having trouble with .htaccess - I can process php in html files on xampp but not on the remote server...

This article has a new url, the one in the OP will redirect anyway

http://www.askapache.com/htaccess/apache-htaccess.html

ms2134's picture

He has: 393 posts

Joined: May 2008

Nothing on this forum suprises me now...

Everytime i vanish for a little while and come back its like KABOOM!

I just log into Explosively Great Posts and this one is very good.

Nice Guide Smiling

They have: 10 posts

Joined: Apr 2010

I am little new to this htacess thing and I am still learning something new everyday. Well it seems it is a very old thread and I am sure there are new updates on the topic too. Thanks and please post updates if there are any.

She has: 44 posts

Joined: Dec 2010

Access Control benefit. Simply put, you can deny visitors from accessing certain parts of your site. You might have a directory that contains scripts. Your server runs the scripts, but you do not want outsiders to have access to them.

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C0ldf1re's picture

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Joined: May 2011

How does that differ in effect from just never allowing the public to know that the private directory is there, by telling the search engines to noindex any webpages that reference that directory?

My signature link just goes to a meagre website, but if ever I learn serps properly, it will appear at the anecdote anecdata disinformation planned blog...

Greg K's picture

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Joined: Nov 2003

There are more possibilities than just search engines to find files on a server. Out of date copy of wordpress or other 3rd party software that has known exploits and vulnerabilities that lets hack scripts placed in the site and/or let people execute commands from the bad software itself can make things lot s of fun.

I've many times tracked down hacks and trace through logs to track it all on a shared hosting servers, one of them was a "custom cms" that had an uploads directory. Once their admin was compromised, someone figured out that instead of uploading a image/pdf/word file, they could upload a .php file, call it, and woohoo, hack script letting them browse the server. (A very good reason why on shared hosting make sure accounts are locked down to only reading their own directory as much as possible)

This script will do all kinds of fun things, include one click find a list of all Apache writeable directories, so they can copy the script off to other sited hosted on the server...

After this was found, .htaccess was mosified for the uploads directory to make .php and other "executable" (as far as apache sees) to feed out as just a .txt file.

-Greg

C0ldf1re's picture

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Greg K wrote:
... vulnerabilities that lets hack scripts placed in the site and/or let people execute commands from the bad software itself can make things lots of fun... This script will do all kinds of fun things, include one click find a list of all Apache writeable directories...

Wow, Greg! Where does somebody learn to do fun things like that?

My signature link just goes to a meagre website, but if ever I learn serps properly, it will appear at the anecdote anecdata disinformation planned blog...

Greg K's picture

He has: 1,994 posts

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There are probably sites out there that tell how to do it, or people that lack morals who have learned how servers work.

They have: 66 posts

Joined: Apr 2011

A useful guide about htaccess. Do anyone of you guys use htaccess password protected folders?
How do you compare it with alternative solutions for directory protection on server?

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