Frequently Asked Questions

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• Apache Web Server
• Bandwidth Data Transfer
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• CGI/PERL, SSI, PHP Scripting
• Customer Support
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CGI/Perl, SSI, PHP Scripting Questions

• Where do I put my CGI scripts?
• What is the path to PERL, home directory, cgi-bin, sendmail, date, etc ?
• Why Does My CGI script give me a Permission Denied error?
• What is a "500 Internal Server Error" ?
• What version of Perl are you running?
• What version of PHP are you running?
• My PHP is being called like you recommend, but I still get errors. Why?
• Why won't my SSI directives get parsed out of my HTML files?
• I can't get my script to work, can you help me?
• My script STILL wont working ?
• How do I get a module installed that is not currently listed ?
• Where can I find more information on PHP?
• Why doesn't SSI work on my website?
• What permissions should I use?
• Can I use any CGI script on my Web hosting account?
• Where can I find useful scripts that are easy to configure?
• Where can I find a guestbook script I can use?
• Where can I find a Form Mailer script to use?
• Where can I find a WWWBoard script I can use?
• Where can I find a Simple Search script for my site?
• What does the 'premature end of script headers' error mean?
• I am using FrontPage. Why aren't my .shtml files being parsed for SSI?
• What Perl modules do you have installed?

Where do I put my CGI scripts?
On Mercury Server please upload your CGI scripts via FTP in ASCII mode to /var/www/cgi-bin directory.

On Wildfire Server please upload your CGI scripts via FTP in ASCII mode to the cgi-bin folder present in the public_html folder.

What is the path to PERL, home directory, cgi-bin, sendmail, date, etc ?
Perl: /usr/bin/perl
sendmail: /usr/sbin/sendmail
date: /bin/date
cgi-bin: /domains/yourdomainame/public_html/cgi-bin
home directory to upload your files: /domains/yourdomainame/public_html/

Why does my CGI script give me a Permission Denied error?
CGI scripts need to be set to be executable files. You need to change the mode, or permissions, of your programs with your FTP program, to be 755, or rwxr-xr-x. Note: A lot of scripts will instruct you to make your scripts 775 or even 777. This is not good! It means anyone on the server can write to your script, and since it's an executable file, it could be used to delete all your files!

What is a "500 Internal Server Error" ?
This could mean many different things. This could mean there was an error somewhere inside your CGI script. Look for any "error_log" files in the directory of the failed script. They may contain information about any problems, mis-configurations or syntax errors that would lead you to solve the problem. The permissions of the script are also very important. Be sure to make your CGI scripts' permissions 755 or rwxr-xr-x. Do NOT make your CGI scripts 777 or rwxrwxrwx. This would mean that any customer on the server would be able to edit your file. On another important note, if you have information (such as a password database) that you want protected you should probably set the database to 700 or rwx------ so only you could read them. dmihosting.com currently doesn’t offers cgi-script troubleshooting support, you can leave a message for one of our tech at support@dmihosting.com, however we can not guarantee that your script error will be taken care of. One of the most common mistakes which causes this error is when you ftp your script in Binary mode , make sure that your script is uploaded via ASCII mode only and the permissions are chmod to 755.

What version of Perl are you running?
Perl 5.8.5-24.RHEL4

What version of PHP are you running?
PHP 4.4.2

My PHP is being called like you recommend, but I still get errors. Why?
Please use text-only editors like NOTEPAD to create and edit your PHP Scripts. Vi and pico are good alternatives when on UNIX-based systems. Other programs actually add format marks in the documents, which cause PHP errors.

Why won't my SSI directives get parsed out of my HTML files?
Your file extension must be .shtml. SSI would consume too many system resources if every HTML file requested was parsed for SSI directives. For this reason, all files that contain SSI should have the .shtml extension so they can be parsed.

I can't get my script to work, can you help me?
We can give you all the server information you need to help you configure your script. Our technical support staff can NOT look into each script, as there can literally be hundreds of reasons why a certain script may not be working. We strongly recommend you go through the "README" file that comes with the script to look for solutions to possible problems. If you are still having difficulty, contact the programmer who wrote the script.

My script STILL wont working ?
In creating CGI scripts and getting them to work on a web server, there are a few key steps that you should ensure have been completed. Follow the steps below to troubleshoot your CGI script; 1. Use NOTEPAD when you modify your script. Do NOT use other programs. 2. Ensure the correct paths are called at the top of the script. The correct module paths for our servers are: Perl: /usr/bin/perl sendmail: /usr/sbin/sendmail date: /bin/date 3. Ensure that your script is chmod to at least 755. This will allow the script to be executed on a web server. To chmod a script using FTP, right click on the script and go to properties and check all the boxes. 4. Ensure each of your scripts are located in your cgi-bin directory /var/www/cgi-bin and your html calls the correct path to your cgi-bin. Example http:/yourdomain/cgi-bin/formmail.cgi.

How do I get a module installed that is not currently listed ?
Just send an email to support@dmihosting.com with the module name, URL, and if possible, a link to the .tar or .gz file. The review process can take several days. If it has been more then a week since you submitted your request, please send a second request. Not all modules are feasible to add to our web server. Please look for other solutions if a module you want can not be added.

Where can I find more information on PHP?
Go to http://php.net

Why doesn't SSI work on my website?
Server Side Include (SSI) commands are executed by the server as it parses your HTML file. Server side includes can be used to include the value of various server environment variables within your HTML such as the local date and time. All of our servers are SSI enabled, all you need to do is call your webpage using .shtml extension instead of .html. You can use SSI commands to display what the time and date is when anyone access your website or record their IP address.

HTML files containing SSI must be named with an .shtml extension.

SSI commands are easy to add to your HTML, but you must follow the syntax exactly:

<!--#command cmd_argument="argument_value" -->

To Add SSI to your website

1) Simply open any of your existing html page

2) Add the SSI command <!--#echo var="DATE_LOCAL" --> between the <body> </body> tags in your HTML.

3) Save that file as filename.shtml (i.e., if your webpage was "about.html", save it as "about.shtml")

4) Upload the file to the server and call your that page on your browser (http://www.yourdomain.com/filename.shtml). That's it! If you did everything right, you will see the time and date on your webpage.

If you have any other questions, the Apache Software Foundation has created the Apache SSI How-To Visit http://httpd.apache.org/docs/howto/ssi.html

What permissions should I use?
All scripts, as well as the directories that contain them, must be set CHMOD 755.

Can I use any CGI script on my Web hosting account?
We allow users to write and run any CGI scripts. However, we reserve the right to disable any scripts that use heavy resources or are harmful to our servers in any way or are persistent.

Where can I find useful scripts that are easy to configure?
http://www.scriptarchive.com

Where can I find a guestbook script I can use?
http://www.scriptarchive.com/guestbook.html

Where can I find a Form Mailer script to use?
http://www.scriptarchive.com/formmail.html

Where can I find a WWWBoard script I can use?
http://www.scriptarchive.com

Where can I find a Simple Search script for my site?
http://www.scriptarchive.com

What does the 'premature end of script headers' error mean?
This could be caused by any of the following.

1. Improper permission settings. Make sure you have the proper permissions set on your script CHMOD 755

2. You should also make sure that you are using a text-only editor such as Notepad to edit your scripts (on a PC) or SimpleText or BBEdit (on a Mac).

3. Upload your scripts in ASCII and not binary. Failure to do so will result in your files not executing properly.

I am using FrontPage. Why aren't my .shtml files being parsed for SSI?
FrontPage creates an ".htaccess" file that includes "Options None" which disables SSI. Use a text-only text editor such as Notepad or vi to edit the .htaccess file to say "Options Includes" and SSI will be re-enabled. Doing certain things in FrontPage later on in development may reverse your changes, so make sure to keep track of the contents of ".htaccess".

What Perl modules do you have installed?