Frequently Asked Questions

The NearlyFreeSpeech.NET FAQ (*)

Customization (*)

What canonical name redirection settings are available?

How do I enable directory indexes for my site?

How do I create a website for the sole purpose of forwarding visitors to another website?

When should the rewrite log be used?

How do I change the text displayed for missing pages and other errors?

NearlyFreeSpeech.NET provides a basic error page in response to most common types of site errors. Sometimes, you may wish to override these pages and provide your own error messages that fit your site style or provide additional information. In order to do this, add the following line to the .htaccess file in your public directory (you'll need to create this plain-text file first if you don't have one):

ErrorDocument 404 /err404.html

Where 404 is the number of the error you wish to catch and err404.html is the name of the file you want displayed when an error occurs. You may use a PHP or CGI script for an ErrorDocument, but be careful not to use absolute paths to specify the name of your ErrorDocument.

Here are the most common errors:

Due to the design of our network, you typically cannot use an ErrorDocument to catch a 503 Service Unavailable error. Such errors do not routinely occur except during system maintenance. They may also occur during some types of partial service interruptions, or if you have a custom server type with improperly-configured daemons or proxies.

What should my site's canonical name be?

What is a per-alias document root?

What path should I use for .htpasswd files?

How do I restrict which IP addresses can access my site?

How do I control redirection of HTTP visitors to HTTPS?

Can I set up more than one alias for my site?

How do I make my site fast and scalable?

What is a run script?

How do I change the server type my site uses?