Sporatic Internal Server Error(500)

Hangin' Around Joined: Oct 23, 2006 Posts: 26

This is the error that I get at random times, for doing nothing in particular -

Internal Server Error

Referred From : (none)
Your IP : **********
The Page Requested: /
Agent : Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727)
Redirect Status : 500

I'm not sure what this means. The install went smoothly, everything is writing to the database. But every now and then when I click on a link(internal link) or try to add a link to the site it goes to that screen. Pure white with plain black text stating the above error. 99% of the time hitting the back button takes you back to the information that you've typed in...you just have to hit "Send" again and it'll send it like nothing happened.

Is there a fix for this? I don't want my users to get upset(I broke it!!) or discouraged when they visit the site if this should happen to them.

Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 2:00 am

You need to have a look through your logs to see if you can determine the problem. I don't think it's an RN problem, but I could be wrong. It might be worth contacting your host to see if they can cast any light on it.

Subject Matter Expert Joined: Feb 23, 2004 Posts: 358

Server Errors are generally generated when there are illegal entries in an .htaccess file. If your .htaccess is populated with anything at all, rename it to .htaccess.OLD, then create a new .htaccess that is completely blank. Try and send the form. If there's no Internal Server Errors after several tries, post your .htaccess.OLD file here and we'll have a look at it..

PHrEEk

Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 11:28 am

I have been looking at my error log for about a week now with nothing showing up for the site...maybe I need a better error log!

As far as my .htaccess file goes..I have the one that came with RN -

Quote:

Options All -Indexes
DirectoryIndex index.php index.htm index.html

# -------------------------------------------
# Start of NukeSentinel(tm) admin.php Auth
# -------------------------------------------
<Files .ftaccess>
deny from all
</Files>

<Files .staccess>
deny from all
</Files>

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Leave this block commented out unless HTTPAuth is NOT available in your NukeSentinel(tm) Admin Panel.
# This code is mainly for use with CGI Authentication and most servers do not require it.
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# <Files admin.php>
# <Limit GET POST PUT>
# require valid-user
# </Limit>
# AuthName "Restricted"
# AuthType Basic
# AuthUserFile /path/to/your/.staccess
# </Files>
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# -------------------------------------------
# Start of NukeSentinel(tm) DENY FROM area
# -------------------------------------------

Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 11:31 am

Please try what PHrEEkie suggested and let us know the result.

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 10:25 am

I tried a blank .htaccess file and experienced no Internal Server Errors at all.

My old .htaccess file is posted above in my previous post.

Thanks!

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 11:01 am

Save this as a new .htaccess and let us know if the error is gone.

Code:

# ------------------------------------------- 


# Start of NukeSentinel(tm) admin.php Auth 


# ------------------------------------------- 


<Files .ftaccess> 


deny from all 


</Files> 





<Files .staccess> 


deny from all 


</Files> 





# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 


# Leave this block commented out unless HTTPAuth is NOT available in your NukeSentinel(tm) Admin Panel. 


# This code is mainly for use with CGI Authentication and most servers do not require it. 


# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 


# <Files admin.php> 


# <Limit GET POST PUT> 


# require valid-user 


# </Limit> 


# AuthName "Restricted" 


# AuthType Basic 


# AuthUserFile /path/to/your/.staccess 


# </Files> 


# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 


# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 





# ------------------------------------------- 


# Start of NukeSentinel(tm) DENY FROM area 


# -------------------------------------------

PS - Make sure there is exactly ONE carraige return at the bottom of the file.

BTW - An Inernal Server Error usually won't show up on any logs you have access to (your domain logs), they will show up in server logs that the server admin has access to.

PHrEEk

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 6:34 pm

Welp I worked on my site the entire day and haven't come across one error(yet).
It seems to have done the trick! Thank you very much for the help again!

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 7:06 am

you might want to ask your host why the commented out "code" for admin.php is not allowed...

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 10:21 pm

I asked my host that question(yes I showed him this thread) and his answer was -

Quote:

Dear Customer,

Please keep in mind we are not web developers. The reason would be that your admin.php script is doing something that our system does not like. Having not looked at the code I would suspect it is trying to do one of several things like creating databases (can't be done on the fly) creating new email accounts (we don't allow you access to that area for security reasons) and the list goes on. Without knowing what your admin.php script is actually doing there is no real way of telling you what is causing your in-ability to use that section of code in your .htaccess file.

Regards, Scott Dennis
Level 2 Technical Support Team

Yay!

PS - The site is still running great!

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 12:59 am

'Dear Customer' that is so impersonal, it wouldn't take much to check your name. JMO

Admin.php doesn't do anything out of the ordinary except access the database so there shouldn't really be a problem. I have never had a problem with any of my hosts.

P.S. The good thing is your site is working. Very Happy

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 6:00 am

Unbelievable! admin.php has nothing to do with the question! They need to respond as to why those lines in the .htaccess (that you had to comment out) file are not allowed by their hosting service (this is what was causing the 500 server error).

They ABSOLUTELY must know why that is the case as it is something they have expressly not allowed you to override and it has nothing to do with how anything is coded on your end....

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 6:53 am

But he MUST know all!! That's why he's in the Level 2 Technical Support Team!! Smile

When I read his answer to my support ticket I made an educated assumption that he didn't even read my entire ticket before he hit the "respond to paying idiot" button. With all the information I provided him(original .htaccess, new .htaccess, the actual QUESTION) he should've been able to figure out what I was asking...but then again I DID assume. Shame on me...

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 8:24 am

That's an incredibly bad answer from your host. Wow.

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 9:21 pm

One of these two directives were causing the error:

Code:

Options All -Indexes 


DirectoryIndex index.php index.htm index.html

IMO, this is not a big issue, don't sweat it. This code would only be helpful if your host had a strange configuration. They obviously have a typical one, so these directives are unnecessary. Glad you're up and working!

PHrEEk

Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 4:48 pm

safierdrgn, my appologies (and to PHrEEkie too) for I didn't look at the before and after close enough. You might want to try adding the first line back in and see if that "takes". If not, then take it out again. I think that one could be useful.

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 1:39 am

Welp..it's back again and I have no clue why. It didn't show after I said it looked like it was fixed on October 31st. The past couple of days I've had a couple of people mention that they got this error..and now it just happened to me when I went to visit the index page.

Code:




Internal Server Error





Referred From : (none) 


Your IP : 24.15.102.99 


The Page Requested: / 


Agent : Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727) 


Redirect Status : 500

LE SIGH!!!! Have anymore ideas?

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 6:08 am

You need to change hosts. I know that you do not want to hear that, but it makes no sense to have intermittent issues like this.

I have no other ideas for you. Sad

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 1:02 pm

Yell at the host more..got it! I can't change hosts as I have prepaid for 2 years...so I'll go for the yelling and see what I can find. Thanks though.

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 8:30 am

My host and I have been going back and forth as to whose fault this is and what's wrong. I've been bounced from Tech I to Tech III..I finally got some sort of response other than "Sorry customer we cannot help you"

Quote:

This appears to be a problem with your scripts sending the header information before it is suppose to. whenever you get a 500 error it is generating an error in your error logs saying Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by Check the server logs to see what I am referring to.

Brett
Technical Support Specialist Level 3
HostMonster.com
866.573.4678

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Do any of you have an idea of what this might be?

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 6:28 pm

Well, if the following FAQ doesn't help you:
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Is it really worth the pain and suffering that you are going through just because you prepaid? I mean, I've never had these types of issues and I've been with four hosts, including Raven.

I have also never seen "Cannot modify header information" produce a 500 error, but see if that FAQ helps at all.