Oh it was a panic situation for me just some minutes back. I got a mail from someone who was looking for Google AdWords Coupon. I have sent the related links and then after some minutes he responded that the links to my posts returned a 404 Error. I immediately checked that and find that all my posts returned a 404 Error. I thought everything was gone as it remind me a similar situation happened last month with PowWeb Web Hosting.

But this situation was even worse as I thought someone gained access to my HostGator account. Because the error pages contained Google AdSense ads and HostGator’s affiliate link. But then their support team told me that it is HostGator’s default error pages.

I contacted the HostGator Support team via Live Chat. I wait less than one minute and got the attention of a HostGator’s Support member. I explained the situation to him and within minutes the site is up again. :) It was a problem with the .htaccess file. They didn’t gave me the time to take a screen shot of the same before that the problem was resolved. Thumbs Up to HostGator Support!

Here is the Transcript of my chat with HostGator Support Team

HostGator Live Chat Transcript

info: Please wait for a HostGator operator to respond.
info: Welcome to HostGator Live Chat! You are now chatting with ‘William B’
William B: Welcome to HostGator, how may I assist you?
Mahesh: hi
Mahesh: am in a big trouble
Mahesh: check out my domain
Mahesh: http://www.minterest.com/
Mahesh: and click a post
Mahesh: it returns a 404 error
William B: Please wait while I check.
William B: I do see the error 404.  I am looking into this issue.
Mahesh: please be fast
Mahesh: something serious out there
Mahesh: i think someone has access to it
Mahesh: i see affiliate links
Mahesh: in error pages
Mahesh: those are not mine
William B: I am still looking into this issue Mahesh.
Mahesh: ok
William B: That is a standard error 404 page of hostgator.com.  
William B: http://www.minterest.com/2007/10/22/list-of-over-250-dofollow-blogs/ does not exist in the filemanager.
Mahesh: Oh ok
Mahesh: hey
Mahesh: no
Mahesh: it was available before
Mahesh: check this page
Mahesh: http://www.minterest.com/2007/08/17/free-google-adwords-promo-code/
Mahesh: i have visited that some 30 mins. back
Mahesh: and then I send that url to someone else
Mahesh: just before sometime
Mahesh: he told me that its retuning a 404 error
Mahesh: it was working correctly 30 mins back
Mahesh: u cant see that file manager
Mahesh: as its a blog
Mahesh: and am using WordPress
Mahesh: I guess its because fo some data base problem
Mahesh: please check it
William B: May I have the wordpress login information?
Mahesh: login is XXXXXX
Mahesh: password is XXXXXX
Mahesh: oh
Mahesh: yes
Mahesh: i can login to wordpress
Mahesh: so its not because of database i think
Mahesh: i had a similar situation earlier
Mahesh: at that time i deleted the database
Mahesh: but then the wordpress was not available
Mahesh: this case is strange
William B: One moment please.
William B: The issue is now repaired.  The issue was located in the .htaccess file.
Mahesh: Wow
Mahesh: which .htaccess file caused the problem?
William B: The .htaccess file was blank and caused the pages not to load.
Mahesh: which .htaccess file?
Mahesh: i mean the location
Mahesh: of that file
William B: The /public_html/.htaccess was blank and so was causing the issue.  We added this code to fix the issue.
William B: # BEGIN WordPress
William B:
William B: RewriteEngine On
William B: RewriteBase /
William B: RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
William B: RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
William B: RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
William B:
William B: # END WordPress
William B: /public_html/.htaccess
William B: You should backup that file so that you can easily fix this issue if it happens again.
William B: The missing code caued the permalinks to stop functioning.
Mahesh: ok
Mahesh: but now is that changed back to the same file
Mahesh: before i had an issue
Mahesh: ?
Mahesh: just want to make sure that none of the settings are changed
William B: Yes, we have fixed the .htaccess to include the necessary information for the permalinks to function properly.
William B: You should backup the .htaccess file and save it where you can restore the .htaccess if you experience this issue again.
Mahesh: Okay I understand that
Mahesh: and will do that
William B: Excellent.
Mahesh: I appreciate your quick support
Mahesh: I will blog about this incident
Mahesh: and will give a thumbs up to HostGator’s support team
Mahesh: :)
William B: Thank you.
William B: You’re welcome!
Mahesh: Thanks again
William B: We are always glad to assist.
William B: You’re welcome!

Related Links:

» The Most Reliable Web Hosting Companies on the Internet
» Ultimate Guide to Web Hosting, Review of Best Web Hosting Service Provider and its Coupon Code
» HostGator Web Hosting Review and Coupon Code
» HostGator Web Hosting Official Website

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