Topic awaiting preservation: can somebody tell me about PHP safe mode - off ... please PLEASE help ...

my site was working absolutely dandy until yesterday. i was trying to install a gallery from menalto & askd my isp to turn off php safe mode for my site only .. they did and now everytime i try to access my site, i get re-directed to freeze.co.nz ... which for some reason reads as http://www.samoana.org.nz/community/index.php in the location bar. when i manually type in the url for my index page (or any other page in my site) i get a 404 / perfectnav msg.

the helpdesk dude at my isp (also my site host) is an idiot. he says as far as he can tell everything is set up correctly server side and i may have just written some re-direct code into my index page while i was sleeping ... never mind the fact that i have absolutely no idea how to do that, absolutely no reason to and no remote interest in freeze.co.nz ...

anyway, so i told above-mentioned-idiot that they'd recently turned safe mode off for me and asked if that could have anything to do with why my site is redirecting, and he responds with 'um, maybe you should, um, check your code for your, um, index page' ...

somebody please enlighten me .. in the process you will be saving an innocent help-desk dude's face from a sudden mauling. (hehe just kidding... people are inherently good .. people are inherently good ... *sigh* )

in desperation i've taken the entire gallery off my server (wil upload again later) and wil get someone at the isp to delete the .htaccess files that came with the gallery in case that has something to do with the 404s i'm getting....

thank you kindly in advance for any assistance you may offer ....

signed: desperate in nz

[insert fabulous sig here]

(Edited by LaSun on 10-19-2004 03:55)

Lasun, from what I can tell it looks like it's DNS related. I'll need further information as to your hosting provider and whether or not they provide redirection services, but here's what I've come up with on my end.

My DNS server resolves both samoana.org.nz and freeze.co.nz with the same IP address: 216.234.161.13

A reverse lookup on this same address lists it as: redirection.net

Now, I'm not sure whether you use redirection.net at all or whether your ISP is linked to that so I'll need some more information. I can conclude that it's probably not a redirect problem on your site since the redirection is handled by a 3rd party, redirection.net

Again, more info please.

i'm not too familiar with DNS issues. our webhost is Maxnet ...

as for the redirct, i've never used redirection.net, and i'll email the webmaster at Maxnet to ask if they do. could it be something the freeze.co.nz people are using that's somehow interfering with the samoana site?

thanks heaps for the response, silence. please let me know what other info you'd need here...

[insert fabulous sig here]

I forgot to mention it, but I'm really sorry the tech support guy sucks. You should probably ask him to escalate your call to his superior so you can actually get some help.

Anyway, after doing some lookup information it seems like your webhosting provider is using virtual hosting and is not resolving the address properly.

Try to follow me here so you can give this information to tech support:

A DNS lookup on samoana.org.nz and a DNS lookup on freeze.co.nz gives the same IP address: 210.55.230.196

A reverse DNS lookup on that IP address reveals that it belongs to: www01.maxnet.co.nz

Now, since the DNS entries for both domain names point to the same place it usually means that they are using virtual hosting. In layman's terms this means that they are using the same internet address for several sites. Usually, when their webserver gets a request for a page, it will return information pertaining to the site requested even though both requests go to the same address.

Look up google->virtual+hosting for some idea of what's going on.

Anyway, as far as your problem is concerned, it is something that your ISP should look into since they are the only ones who can rectify the problem. So, I would get back on the phone and hound their tech support until you get a hold of someone who can actually find their ass with both hands and get them to look into your problem.

Hopefully you'll be able to get this problem resolved.

I'd also like to point out that my observation is based on the facts I was able to dig up so I may be way off the mark, but I'm pretty sure of my conclusions.

Good luck.



~edit~ closing url tags

(Edited by silence on 10-19-2004 07:10)

i'm currently on hold with the isp... after trying to argue again that it was something i'd done, i made the guy (same idiot) pull up our server and look at our index files himself... i mentioned some DNS stuff but it got him more confused than i am, so now he's got me on hold (4 minutes and counting) to try and sort it out ...

i can't believe we pay this company money!

thank you so much again, silence. i've assigned myself some 'learn server-side-stuff' homework based on the links you've posted. (yes, still on hold)...

new query: anybody know any half-DECENT still economical isp/webhosts in nz?

(.... and ... still ... on ... hold ...)


update:

20 minutes later, my friend the idiot apologetically admits that the issue is beyond his knowledge base and he will definitely contact the webmaster (who i have emailed twice today already with no reply) who will investigate further and get back to me tomorrow..

aw man ....

(Edited by LaSun on 10-19-2004 08:36)