Name must not start with a dot(.) or dash (-) ?

**marshall** · 2 Jul 2007, 05:45 AM

Hello,

When I uploaded the new fresh zen cart to a website, the transfer failed. Later I found specifically the file (.htaccess) can not be uploaded because of the following reason:

[00:35:06] STOR .htaccess
[00:35:06] 553-The name you specified is not allowed.
[00:35:06] 553-Names must contain only ASCII letters (a-z,A-Z), digits (0-9), underscore, dot and dash.
[00:35:06] 553-Names must not start with a dot (.) or dash (-).
[00:35:06] 553-For additional info please visit:
[00:35:06] 553-See http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/webhosting/gftp/

Any way to solve this problem?

Thank you,

**DrByte** · 2 Jul 2007, 05:48 AM

That is a restriction imposed by your hosting company.
Evidently they don't want you altering security features using .htaccess or other normally-hidden files.

If you want to correct that problem , you may need to subscribe to a more feature-rich hosting account/service, perhaps with another host, or you will have to work with your host to find other ways of implementing the security-protection features offered by the .htaccess files supplied with Zen Cart.

**marshall** · 3 Jul 2007, 12:38 AM

Thank you DarByte for your help. :)

A couple of questions:

Besides changing hosting service or discussing with them, is there any other way, like changing the name of the file (.htaccess) and its pointing in the code? Is there any explanations about how this file is used, configured, is it necessarily needed?

Thanks,

**marshall** · 3 Jul 2007, 02:19 AM

I just took a search using Google and learned about this file and got to know it will be no use if its name is changed.

**MamaKitty** · 3 Jul 2007, 02:32 AM

Change the name to htaccess (no dot). Upload that. Then rename to .htaccess.

**marshall** · 3 Jul 2007, 04:28 AM

Thank you Mamakitty for your advice. I ever did that before, the hosting server did not allow me to do that by showing the FTP error:

550 Permission denied on server. You are restricted to your account.

And I checked the hosting service (unix, should be able to support it), there is no configuration for me to change the user right.

Do not know what to do now, could I just upload all other files without this file(.htaccess)? What security concern will be in that case?