Admin page - Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request

[jsteggy]

HI, I've been getting the error (listed below) on and off for weeks while opening the admin page. I usually restore the admin directory from a backup copy and that usually resolves the problem. I haven't changed anything since last week, and the admin page was working fine yesterday. Does anyone know why this is happening

This is the error:
Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.


Thanks joe

[mc12345678]

This would more than likely be a result of some combination of things like .htaccess rules in the root directory (or above) of your store, admin/includes/configure.php file content settings, and/or some sort of SSL issue. You'd have to probably provide more information (suggest fully covering the posting tips) to suss it out.

[jsteggy]

Thanks. I found the cause, but not the solution. Here is what had happened. dreamhost has an option to let me redirect www.store.com to store.com or store.com to www.store.com or do no redirect. I wanted (perhaps mistakenly) to redirect store.com to www.store.com. Which, after making the change, worked for the catalog. no problem. admin page worked for a while, the would get that redirect error. I changed the option back to the do nothing setting. admin page seems to be working fine now.

I would like to understand what I should have done to get the redirect working correctly. guidance on proper configuration is much appreciated.

to recap the settings. dreamhost was set to direct store.com to www.store.com.

The configure files have the following details.
store.com/includes/configure.php has the following (i added the spaces to the store name)

  define('HTTP_SERVER', 'https://www. a l l e y s t a m p .com');
  define('HTTPS_SERVER', 'https://www. a l l e y s t a m p .com');

  // Use secure webserver for checkout procedure?
  define('ENABLE_SSL', 'true');

// NOTE: be sure to leave the trailing '/' at the end of these lines if you make changes!
// * DIR_WS_* = Webserver directories (virtual/URL)
  // these paths are relative to top of your webspace ... (ie: under the public_html or httpdocs folder)
  define('DIR_WS_CATALOG', '/');
  define('DIR_WS_HTTPS_CATALOG', '/');

The admin/includes/configure.php file has these settings: (again I added spaces to store name)

  define('HTTP_SERVER', 'https://www. a l l e y s t a m p .com');
  define('HTTPS_SERVER', 'https://www. a l l e y s t a m p .com');
  define('HTTP_CATALOG_SERVER', 'https://www. a l l e y s t a m p .com');
  define('HTTPS_CATALOG_SERVER', 'https://www. a l l e y s t a m p .com');

  // Use secure webserver for catalog module and/or admin areas?
  define('ENABLE_SSL_CATALOG', 'true');
  define('ENABLE_SSL_ADMIN', 'true');

// NOTE: be sure to leave the trailing '/' at the end of these lines if you make changes!
// * DIR_WS_* = Webserver directories (virtual/URL)
  // these paths are relative to top of your webspace ... (ie: under the public_html or httpdocs folder)
  define('DIR_WS_ADMIN', '/Admin/');
  define('DIR_WS_CATALOG', '/');
  define('DIR_WS_HTTPS_ADMIN', '/Admin/');
  define('DIR_WS_HTTPS_CATALOG', '/');

The .htaccess file is most likely the culprit. when I reset the dreamhost setting, that file wasn't updated and regular pages errorred out. I commented the redirect code and product pages are showing again.

This is what I commented out. (spaces in the store name are added by me)

#### Require SSL (https://)
#RewriteEngine On
#RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} !^443$
#RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://(www\.)?a l l e y s t a m p .com/$1 [R=permanent]

#SSLOptions +StrictRequire
#SSLRequireSSL
#SSLRequire %{HTTP_HOST} eq "a l l e y s t a m p.com" #or www.a l l e y s t a m p.com
#ErrorDocument 403 https://www.a l l e y s t a m p.com 
#### end ssl ##

This is the rest of the file.

#
<Files .htaccess>
order allow,deny
deny from all
</Files>

## deny *everything*
##<FilesMatch ".*">
##  Order Allow,Deny
##  Deny from all
##</FilesMatch>
#
## but now allow just *certain* necessary files:
<FilesMatch ".*\.(zip|ZIP|gzip|pdf|PDF|mp3|MP3|swf|SWF|wma|WMA|wmv|WMV|wav|epub)$">
  Order Allow,Deny
  Allow from all
</FilesMatch>
#

ErrorDocument 401 "</p><p><strong>Sorry, the document you requested could not be found.</strong></p>"
ErrorDocument 403 "</p><p><strong>Sorry, the document you requested could not be found.</strong></p>"
ErrorDocument 404 "</p><p><strong>Sorry, the document you requested could not be found.</strong></p>"
ErrorDocument 500 "</p><p><strong>Hey sorry. There was an internal server error...</strong></p>"

##<IfModule mod_headers.c>
##  <FilesMatch ".*\.(zip|ZIP|pdf|PDF|mp3|MP3|swf|SWF|wma|WMA|wmv|WMV|wav|epub)$">
##    # tell all downloads to automatically be treated as "save as" instead of launching in an application directly
##    # ALERT: ForceType requires Apache2 or later. If using older version of Apache, it will need mod_mime installed. Or just comment out the ForceType line below
##    # (to disable, just comment the next 2 lines by adding a '#' at the beginning of each):
##    ForceType application/octet-stream
##    Header set Content-Disposition attachment
##  </FilesMatch>
##</IfModule>
#
### Hotlinking
#RewriteEngine On
#RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
#RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?a l l e y s t a m p.com/.*$ [NC] 
#RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ http://www.a l l e y s t a m p.com/hotlink.gif [R,L]
#RewriteEngine On
#RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
#RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^https://(www\.)?a l l e y s t a m p.com/.*$ [NC] 
#RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ https://www.a l l e y s t a m p.com/hotlink.gif [R,L]
###

IndexIgnore */*