directory assistance

[carpenoctem]

on my website.... www.carpenoctem.tv

i used to be able to pull up a page by typing

www.carpenoctem.tv/haunt


however, i have noticed over the past pew days, that that will not work. i have to now type

www.carpenoctem.tv/haunt/

in order for it to load. is there something that i can do to make it so that i do not have to type that final '/ '
it will take me a lot of work to redo pages on the site all over that little character.

[grahm]

That's odd.. I can enter URLs without the trailing / on my site and they work but not the ones on your site.

Have you changed anything recently?

btw.. Your page on Oregon was perty interesting. :cool:

[carpenoctem]

i have been uploading pages and stuff recently... no telling what or when it changed.

i called powweb and they said that their servers wont allow it without that trailing /

i dont get it.

[HalfaBee]

Have you changed or added the .htacces file in htdocs?

This is normally the cause of these sort of problems.

HalfaBee

[carpenoctem]

i did change it

[carpenoctem]

thanks for the idea.... it works perfectly now......

[HalfaBee]

I just love problems that I can fix that easily :)

Great that you got it fixed.

HalfaBee

[stevel]

If support told you that the trailing slash is required, they are mistaken.

[mjp]

Support mistaken? Oh come on, how could that be!? ;)

The trailing slash is technically a required part of a URL that does not end in a file name. Normally Apache mod_dir will add the trailing slash automatically when you leave it off, because the Apache DirectoryIndex directive (the setting that tells the server to look for an index file when none is specified) requires it.

So technically it is required, but unless you've configured it not to, the server will add it for you when you leave it off.

mjp

[HalfaBee]

An answer with a bit more insite may have saved a customer hours of heartache.

The servers accept the URL without the trailing / as standard and the only thing that can change this is .htaccess.

All they had to do was say that and not the trite little answer they came up with.

It only took 5 minutes for carpenoctem to find the problem and answer after reading my post.

I have a friend that is like this, you have to ask the exact question before he will give you a usable answer. I think it has something to do with being close to genius level.

At least you may be bright people to answer the questions. :)

HalfaBee

[mjp]

Eh, what?

My response was to "If support told you that the trailing slash is required, they are mistaken" - which is not completely true. Depends on the context, the question and the configuration. I was only pointing out technicalities, in the unlikely event that anyone cares what the server is actually doing when you give it an incomplete URL.

I wasn't responding to carpenoctem's questions, because you already answered them.

mjp

[HalfaBee]

Sorry mjp, I wasn't talking about you.

It was the response from support that seemed a bit lacking.

If they actually used Powweb they would know that the / is not needed normally.
Its the problem of having trained people to answer questions, not people that know what they are doing.
Just a bit on edge this morning.
HalfaBee

[mjp]

Re: support in general (not PowWeb support, which I can't comment on with any credibility since I'm part of it), I had to staff a web hosting support department a few years ago and I could barely find 15 people in Los Angeles who could read, let alone had any interest in, or knowledge of, the technical aspects of the job.

Not to mention that when you *do* find someone who fits that bill, they tend to lack many of the basic communication skills needed to interact with the public. heh. Present company excluded, of course.

Kind of makes you wonder how places like AOL or Earthlink fill those 500 - 600 chairs in their support centers...

mjp

[stevel]

Oh, do I have a URL for you! :D

The Internet Help Desk (http://www.deadtroll.com/video/helldesk56k.html)