Frequently Asked Questions

The NearlyFreeSpeech.NET FAQ (*)

Troubleshooting (*)

How should I describe problems I'm seeking help with?

Why can't I delete or change the permissions of these files my web application created?

As a security precaution, CGI and PHP scripts run with different user credentials than you do when you edit your files. Although the CGI/PHP user has significantly fewer privileges overall, it is possible to create a situation where an application creates files or directories that you do not have permission to access or remove via FTP or ssh. This typically happens if an application's umask is set incorrectly; the resulting files or directories will be owned by the "web" user and will not be group or world writable. (Correct umasks are 0 or 002, depending on the expected group ownership. A umask of 0 should work for most web applications, and does not compromise security on our system the way it does on some shared hosts.)

If you get stuck with web-owned files you can't access or delete, you can regain control using the "Repossess Files" action on the Site Information panel for the affected site. However, if you find yourself doing this on a regular basis, that tends to indicate your site's permissions aren't set properly.

If I have a directory called example, why can't I refer to it as /example?

Why does my site keep redirecting to the wrong alias?

What does it mean that a site "has temporarily exceeded its connection limit?"

I can't access my site at all. What should I check first?

What do I do if someone is trying to waste my site's bandwidth?

Why shouldn't I refer to my site as "example.com" in the forum?

Why does your credit card form say my address (or zip) "failed validation" even though I know it is correct?

Why do I sometimes receive an "Access Denied" error when visiting my site?

Why am I getting a "premature end of script headers" error when I try to run a script?

Why doesn't my .htaccess file work with Apache 2.4?

Why do I get "The requested URI could not be accessed" when logging in to the control panel of my WordPress site?

Why is there a tiny bug icon on a page in the member interface?

Why is my WordPress site asking for FTP credentials?