Web Hosting and Domain registration Knowledgebase» Web Hosting Control Panel Guide

Why am I getting a 500 Internal Server Error on my website?

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:46:01 +0000

By default, when your site is accessed via a web browser (like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, etc.), the Gossimer server tries to locate any of the following files (web pages) in the directory and displays its content:

index.html

index.htm

index.php

index.php3

index.php4

index.shtml

default.html

default.htm

default.php

home.html

home.htm

home.php

The above mentioned files are also referred as the Home Page. The order specified above is important as the server tries to locate your home page in this exact order. If the server can not locate your home page, the visitor will get a 500 Internal Server Error.

In the unlikely event that you have used more than one of the above file names, the same order will be followed for selection of the home page. So, if you have a file named index.htm as well as a file named home.html, then index.htm will be your home page.

IMPORTANT

You need to upload one of the above mentioned files within the web directory for your site to be publicly accessible, when someone simply types your domain name in the browser. The web directory is the default directory, where all your files reside. Refer <#faq:819#>.For example, if you have bought web hosting for the domain name your-name.com and choose to upload a file called somename.htm in the web directory. Then if a visitor visits http://www.your-name.com then they will encounter the above mentioned error message since the server did not find any home page (mentioned above). This content of this file will only be visible if someone types

www.your-name.com/somename.htm/a/index.html.

In this case it would be advisable if you rename somename.htm to index.htm. This would ensure that anyone visiting http://www.your-name.com would be able to view your site immediately, instead of remembering the complete path www.your-name.com/somename.htm/a/index.html.

The Server expects a home page to be present in every directory within the web directory, so that the default webpage can be automatically displayed to the visitor.For example, if you have web hosting for the domain name your-name.com and choose to upload a file called somename.htm in a directory called myfiles in the web directory. Then if a visitor visits http://www.your-name.com/myfiles/ then he will encounter an error since the server would not find any home page (mentioned above). This file will only be visible if someone types www.your-name.com/myfiles/somename.htm/a/index.html.

How do I import data into a MySQL database?

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:10:07 +0000

You can use phpMyAdmin to import any data in your MySQL databases. phpMyAdmin provides an easy manner for you to add further content to your databases. Follow the process outlined below to import data via phpMyAdmin:

1. Connect to your database using phpMyAdmin. Click here to read how >>

2. Select the database in the left frame.

3. Click the SQL tab at the top of the page.

4. In the Or use a text file section, click Browse and select your .sql file.

5. Once the SQL file is selected, click Go.

If the above doesn’t work for phpMyAdmin, try opening the file in a text editor and pasting the contents in to the SQL form.

Viewing details of your existing WordPress installation

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:03:38 +0000

Once you have installed WordPress on your website, you may glimpse information about the installation from the Power Tools interface. Follow the below mentioned process to do so:

1. Login to your Control Panel and search for the domain name for which you have purchased a Linux hosting package. Click here to know how >>

2. In the search results view, click on the domain name. This will take you to the Order details view.

3. Click on the Manage Web Hosting Service button in the lower toolbar.

4. Go to Manage Website -> Power Tools.

5. Here click on the View link under the Status column, besides the WordPress Power Tool.

6. This would present you the following details about your current installation

WordPress Version
WordPress Space Utilization
Database Name
Database Username
Installation Directory Name
Admin Name (provided at the time of installation)
Admin Email Address (provided at the time of installation)
WordPress URL
Admin URL

How do I estimate my Data Transfer usage?

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:51:05 +0000

Calculating your data transfer usage is a very important consideration in setting up your web hosting package. Data transfer for your website is calculated on a monthly basis, and would most likely vary from one month to the next. The main factors that affect the data transfer are

size of your web pages,
number of hits for each page, and
your ftp traffic.

To understand this better, lets take an example.

Suppose you have a site containing 150 web pages of size 20 kb each, which is visited by 75 people per day (all visitors go to all 150 pages). This would mean that the data transfer is 150 x 20 kb x 75 = 225,000 kb per day or roughly 219 Mb per month.

Now suppose you have a complex website with several hundred pages, each page of different size and attracting a lot of visitors. Here, the pages that will attract maximum traffic or for that matter the default page which will get uploaded for every visitor needs to be considered while anticipating your data transfer.

Another factor to take into consideration is the frequency at which you modify your website, since the data uploads through FTP also add to your data transfer.

Moreover, it is a good idea to regularly monitor your traffic and increase or decrease the data transfer limit according to the data transfer reported in your web statistics.

Deleting MS SQL Database Users

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:35:58 +0000

Follow the process mentioned below to delete an existing MS SQL Database user:

1. Login to your Control Panel and search for the domain name for which you have purchased this hosting package.

2. In the search results view, click on the domain name. This will take you to the Order Details View.

3. Click on Manage Web Hosting Service in the lower toolbar.

4. In the Website Management interface pop-up that follows, go to Manage Website -> Database Manager -> List Databases.

5. The following page would contain a list of Databases associated with your website, with complete details for each Database such as the Database name, space utilization and the Users associated with it. Here, click on the User whom you wish to delete.

6. In the User details view that follows, click on Delete.

CuteFTP

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:38:44 +0000

The process of uploading content for your website using CuteFTP can be split into 2 steps:

Configuring your Website to work with CuteFTP
Connecting and Uploading content

Step I: Follow the process described to configure CuteFTP

1. Open CuteFTP. In the menu, go to File -> New ->FTP Site.

2. Enter your site details on the following page. For the Label, type anything to identify your site. For Host address, type in your domain name. Also type the Username and your Password for your domain name.

3. Click OK. Under General FTP sites, you would now see the site you have just configured.

Different modes of data connection can be used during FTP. Click here to know more details >>

There are two ways in which the data connection mode can be modified.

A. Global Settings

a. Under Tools menu, select Global Options.

b. Under the Transfer section, change Data mode to PORT (Active mode) or PASV (Passive mode).

Click OK to save the changes.

This change will affect all the sites for whom the data connection mode was set by default.

B. For Individual Sites

I. Select the site from the General FTP Sites list, right-click and then click Properties.

II. Under the Type tab, click the Data connection type drop-down menu.

III. Choose User PASV for Passive mode and Use PORT for Active mode. Click OK to save the changes.

The change is saved and active for future FTP sessions of this site.

i. Double-click the site you have configured as described above. This will make a connection to the server. Once you see the server files listed, double-click on web folder. Windows Server users need to open web folder.

ii. In the left pane in CuteFTP, click the Local Drives tab.

iii. Navigate to the location of your website files. Select all the file you would like to upload. Select the files to be uploaded and right-click on the selection and choose Upload.

iv. Your files should now be uploaded.

NOTE: In case you are unable to connect via FTP, there maybe several factors responsible for it. Click here to know about them >>

What is a DSN and how can I use a DSN or a DSN-less connection to connect to a database?

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:09:43 +0000

DSN is an abbreviation for Data Source Name. Data Source Name is a parameter that stores Data Source information (which includes the source of data such as relational database, and the connectivity information for accessing the data). The primary purpose of the DSN is to provide connectivity to a database through an ODBC driver.

What is ODBC?

ODBC stands for Open Data-Base Connectivity. This is a method developed for accessing databases, particularly with the intention of making it possible to access the data in them from any application. Thus, it works independent of the Database Management System (DBMS) that is used to maintain the database.

The Data Source information stored in the DSN typically consists of

the database name,
directory,
the database driver,
a UserID,
its password, and
any other essential information

DSNs are particularly useful for retrieving data from your databases to display on your website. Once you create a DSN for your database, you can use the DSN in your website to retrieve and display that information on your database.

You may connect to a database even without creating a DSN, by using a DSN-less connection. The only change is use of a Connection String in place of a rather easy to remember DSN.

Advantages of using a DSN Connection string over a DSN-less connection string

Provides easy to remember data source names.
When there are lots of data sources to use and you want a central repository to hold the collection of data sources without having to worry about the actual site and configuration of the data sources.

Sample of a DSN Connection String

<%
Dim con
Set con = Server.CreateObject(“ADODB.Connection”)
con.Open “DSN=mydsn”
‘ Now database is open and we are connected
con.Close
‘We are done so we’ve closed the connection above
Set con = Nothing
%>

There is only a singular advantage of using a DSN-less Connection string instead of a DSN connection string – database access becomes much faster since DSN-less connections use native OLE DB providers, while DSN connections make use of ODBC drivers.

Sample of a DSN-less Connection String

Access database

<%
set cnn = server.createobject(“ADODB.Connection”)
cnn.open “PROVIDER=MICROSOFT.JET.OLEDB.4.0;DATA SOURCE=c:\anydatabase.mdb”
%>

Note: In the above example, C:\anydatabase needs to be replaced with the actual physical path to the database on the website.

How to construct a DSN-less connection string for Access and SQL Server Databases?

Access Database

With native OLE DB Provider (preferred)

Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data Source=c:\path\to\database.mdb

Using ODBC connection

Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)}; DBQ=c:\path\to\database.mdb

Always use the connection string that uses native OLE DB provider because it is faster than the ODBC method of connecting. Data Source or DBQ are the absolute path to the database. If you have a relative path, then you can obtain the absolute path by using Server.MapPath(“/relative/path/to/database.mdb”).

Example

Dim conStr
Set conStr = “Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data Source=” & _
Server.MapPath(“/dbo/database.mdb”)

SQL Server Database

With native OLE DB Provider (preferred)Provider=SQLOLEDB; Data Source=server_name; Initial Catalog=database_name; User Id=user_name; Password=user_password

Using ODBC Provider

Driver={SQL Server}; Server=server_name; Database=database_name; UID=user_name; PWD=user_password

Formail mails not reaching their destination

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:29:47 +0000

Gossimer’s Mail Servers are configured to reject mails if the From Email Address doesn’t match the Domain name that is hosted with us. To send mails in this manner, you need to make sure that you have added a hidden field with the Name, Email and value as that of your From Email Address, i.e. any@yourdomain.com to your form.

An example is given below:

Note that, if you are using some custom made PHP or any other CGI script then you need to specify the From address. You will have to check the manuals of the programming language that you use to understand how to achieve this.

Defining Action rights for a MySQL Database User

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:52:32 +0000

Gossimer allows you the ability to customize User access to your Databases to a considerable extent, such that you can decide what action privileges to provide for a Database to any User. For example, you can choose to revoke deletion privileges in a Database for a particular User, while allowing the User to read and/or update the Database.

The actions that you can choose to provide/revoke privileges for a User are:

Select
Insert
Update
Delete
Create
Lock Table

Drop
Reference
Index
Alter
Create Temp Table

You can specify restricted Database access for a particular User during creation of the User account itself. Click here to read how to add a MySQL Database User >>

However, if you had not done so and wish to do it now, or wish to modify the existing action privileges, follow the process mentioned below:

1. Login to your Control Panel and search for the domain name for which you have purchased this hosting package. Click here to read how >>

2. In the search results view, click on the domain name. This will take you to the order details view.

3. Click on Manage Web Hosting Service in the lower toolbar.

4. In the Website Management interface pop-up that follows, go to Manage Website -> Database Manager -> List Databases.

6. In the User details view that follows, click on Modify.

7. Under the Advanced Options section, de-select the check-boxes adjacent to the action privileges that you wish to revoke, and click Submit.

This would ensure that the User can only perform the actions that are selected (ticked in this view).

IMPORTANT

If you have installed a Power Tool in your Web Hosting Package, then you need to ensure that you do not perform any of the following actions:

Modification/Deletion of the Database, that you selected during installation of the Power Tool

Modification/Deletion of the Database User, that you selected during installation of the Power Tool

MS SQL DTS (Data Transformation Service)

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:36:59 +0000

DTS (Data Transformation Service) or the Import / Export utility as it is widely known as, is used to transfer objects and data between 2 SQL Server databases residing on 2 different Servers. DTS is a set of graphical tools and programmable objects that let you extract, transform, and consolidate data from disparate sources into single or multiple destinations that can be bundled and saved as a package and executed.

How to use DTS?

You can use the DTS utility by referring to the process mentioned below -

Open MS SQL Enterprise Manager.

Right click the database whose contents you wish to transfer to a different database on another MS SQL server or onto which you wish import external data.

Click All Tasks.

Click Import or Export depending upon the type of activity you are performing (If you are trying to update the database on our Server with the copy on your local machine, then you would need to export the data from your local machine).

Select the Data Source as Microsoft OLEDB Provider For SQL Server.

Enter the IP Address / Name of the Server from where you are exporting the data.

Select SQL Authentication as the Auth Mode.

Enter the Username and Password to login to the database.

Select the database from the drop-down list.

Click Next & enter the destination Server IP Address.

Enter the Username and Password for the database on the Remote Server.

Select the database from the drop-down list and click Next.

Select the radio button Copy Objects & Data between SQL Server Databases and click Next.

Uncheck Copy all objects & Use default options checkboxes. You would be selecting the options & objects to be copied.

Click Select Objects & uncheck the check box for Stored Procedures & User defined Functions.

Click Check all and then click OK.

Click Options and uncheck the check box for Copy Database Users & Database Roles & Copy Object Level permissions.

Click Next and run the package immediately or schedule it for a later run.

Click Finish to complete the process.