htaccess help please?

[spid3r1987]

Hi there,
I have had these rules in my htaccess for a while on my old server, iv now moved server and for some reason google can no longer find my sitemaps due to a redirect error etc etc...

RewriteEngine On
# redirects any URL that includes: record_company.php/password_forgotten.php
RedirectMatch Permanent ^/(.*[record_company.php]+) /page_not_found.php
# redirects any URL that includes: /images/wp- with 'wp-' being anything that ends with '.php'
# this allows for images named such as 'wp-header.jpg' to work
RedirectMatch Permanent ^/(.*[images]+)/(wp-.*\.php)$ /page_not_found.php
# Don't rewrite any URIs ending with a file extension (ending with .[xxxx])
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.[a-zA-Z]{2,4}$
# Don't rewrite admin directory
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/ADMINAREA/.* [NC]
# Don't rewite shop directory
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/shop/.* [NC]
# Don't rewrite editors directory
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/editors.* [NC]
# Don't rewrite cPanel directories
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/cpanel.* [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/frontend.* [NC]
# Handle all other URIs using Zen Cart (index.php)
RewriteRule (.*) /index.php?%{QUERY_STRING} [L]

no idea when it comes to htaccess

but which of these would stop google finding my sitemaps??


p.s ADMINAREA is my directory renamed for security on here

[econcepts]

Google looks at your ROBOTS.TXT file to find the location of your XML sitemap. When you moved the site did you move your robots.txt file over as well? If not you need to add that (with the proper link and authorization to your XML sitemaps). If you added it, and it still is not working you need to make sure the path to the XML sitemap is correct.

You might also want to check your Google Webmaster tools section to make sure it is pointing to the correct location as well.

[spid3r1987]

yep moved the robots txt over etc
webmasters is looking in the right place, it finds my sitemap when i rename it to .htaccess.bak
perfect find etc etc...
rename it back to .htaccess
finds nothing... :S

[DrByte]

Just a simple suggestion: have you tried commenting-out or removing individual lines to narrow down which one is causing your problem?

[spid3r1987]

i did comment out a few that i thought could cause the problem, but still the same :S

[DrByte]

"a few" doesn't sound like it's a thorough enough test, as evidenced by your results

[spid3r1987]

"a few" doesn't sound like it's a thorough enough test, as evidenced by your results

lol yeah i know, but the few that i didn't comment out were to do with record company/password forgot... images-wp.jpg etc....

il have to have another go on it when i get time(god work sucks when i have to go out on site lol )

[econcepts]

Have you checked the permissions on the robots.txt file? It could be that the .htaccess is restricting access to that (may be obvious.)

When I try to access your robots.txt I get a 403 forbidden error message currently (leading me to believe the file is being blocked.)

When you rename the .htaccess, that in effect removes the restrictions and thus enables it to be found.

Just some more thoughts for you.

I don't know if this is the site in question, but I was trying to access it on the tools-draper site. I'm assuming (may be a bad idea) that this is the site in question?

[spid3r1987]

Have you checked the permissions on the robots.txt file? It could be that the .htaccess is restricting access to that (may be obvious.)

When I try to access your robots.txt I get a 403 forbidden error message currently (leading me to believe the file is being blocked.)

When you rename the .htaccess, that in effect removes the restrictions and thus enables it to be found.

Just some more thoughts for you.

I don't know if this is the site in question, but I was trying to access it on the tools-draper site. I'm assuming (may be a bad idea) that this is the site in question?

on one of 3 sites yes m8, tools-draper, and 2 others etc...
ahh didn't think of htaccess restricting robots...hmmmm


hmmm in my htaccess file that comes with ZC1.3.9g
added txt to the "<filesmatch>" part, seems i now have access to it

[econcepts]

So did that fix everything?