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Other FAQ - Custom Error pages

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A GLOBAT GUIDE TO .HTACCESS MODIFICATION

Table of contents

3 What are the some error doc codes that can have custom pages?

3.1 Step 1 - Edit your error doc folder files
3.2 Step 2 - Create your .htaccess file
3.3 Step 3 - Modify your .htaccess file

4 How do I password protect a directory using .htaccess?

4.1 Step 1 - Create .htpasswd file
4.2 Step 2 - Edit .htaccess file
4.3 Step 3 - Modify your .htpasswd file

5 How do I block bad bots and site rippers (aka offline browsers)?

6 Is there another way beside permissions to deny a browser from viewing my .htaccess file?

What is the .htaccess file?

The .htaccess file is a simple ASCII file that is loaded in a directory on your Web hosting account, usually in the main httpdocs folder. Its file extension is just “.htaccess” with no filename before the dot and its permissions should be 664 (RW-R--R--).

What can I do with a .htaccess file?

The .htaccess file can be used to modify how your site functions. Common uses include the creation of custom error pages, password protecting directories, and blocking web crawlers or specific users from accessing your site.

What are the some error doc codes that can have custom pages?

Step 1 - Edit your error doc folder files

Edit the files in your /error_docs/ folder. This is a root directory on your account outside your httpdocs folder. When your account was provisioned, 4 custom error pages are generated for you. You can modify these files to suit your look and feel. Please note that it is not mandatory to use or modify these files. By default, the apache server will use standard error pages. However, if you want to use the custom error pages in this folder, continue to step 2.

Step 2 - Create your .htaccess file

Modify your .htaccess file to override default settings and use your custom error pages. If not already created, create a new file (it can be blank) called .htaccess with permissions of 664 within your httpdocs folder.

Step 3 - Modify your .htaccess file

Edit your .htaccess file to accept your custom error pages. Simply add lines of code to override the default error handling. Examples include:

                  ErrorDocument 400 /error_docs/bad_request.html
                  ErrorDocument 401 /error_docs/auth_reqd.html
                  ErrorDocument 403 /error_docs/forbidden_page.html
                  ErrorDocument 404 /error_docs/not_found.html
                  ErrorDocument 500 /error_docs/server_error.html

Remember to save your file and to test the errors to ensure the page looks as you intended.

How do I password protect a directory using .htaccess?

Step 1 - Create .htpasswd file

Within the folder you want to protect, create a .htaccess file and a .htpasswrd file.  IS IT .htpasswrd or .htpasswd? It is repeated differently below.

Step 2 - Edit .htaccess file

In the .htaccess file, add the following lines of code:

                  AuthUserFile /safedir/.htpasswd
                  AuthGroupFile /dev/null
                  AuthName EnterPassword
                  AuthType Basic
                  require user username

For AuthUserFile you are going to put the server path of your .htpasswd file. The last line require user is where you enter the username of those who you want to have access to that portion of your site. Note that using this will allow only that specific user to be able to access that directory. This applies if you had an htpasswd file that had multiple users setup in it and you wanted each of them to have access to an individual directory. If however you wanted the entire list of users to have access to that directory, you would replace require user xxx with require valid-user. The AuthName is the name of the area you want to access. It could anything, such as "EnterPassword". You can change the name of this 'realm' to whatever you want, within reason. We are using AuthType Basic because we are using basic HTTP authentication

Step 3 - Modify your .htpasswd file

Modify your .htpasswd file to look like this

                  username:y4E7Ep8e7EYV
                  username2:y4E7Ep8e7EYV

Note that there should only be one username:encrypted password per line. To encrypt your password so that the server can authenticate it we suggest using this handy tool http://www.tools.dynamicdrive.com/password/

How do I block bad bots and site rippers (aka offline browsers)?

First, there are many definitions of a "bad bot". Most would agree they are the spiders that do a lot more harm than good on your site (ie: an e-mail harvester). Site rippers are offline browsing programs that a surfer may unleash on your site to crawl and download every one of its pages for offline viewing. In both cases, both your site's bandwidth and resource usage are increased as a result, sometimes to the point of crashing your server. Bad bots typically ignore the wishes of your robots.txt file, so you'll want to ban them using means such as .htaccess. The trick is to identify a bad bot. Below is a useful block of code which you can insert into your .htaccess file for blocking a lot of the known bad bots and site rippers currently out there:

              RewriteEngine On 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^BlackWidow [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Bot\ mailto:craftbot@yahoo.com [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^ChinaClaw [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Custo [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^DISCo [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Download\ Demon [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^eCatch [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^EirGrabber [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^EmailSiphon [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^EmailWolf [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Express\ WebPictures [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^ExtractorPro [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^EyeNetIE [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^FlashGet [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^GetRight [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^GetWeb! [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Go!Zilla [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Go-Ahead-Got-It [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^GrabNet [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Grafula [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^HMView [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} HTTrack [NC,OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Image\ Stripper [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Image\ Sucker [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Indy\ Library [NC,OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^InterGET [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Internet\ Ninja [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^JetCar [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^JOC\ Web\ Spider [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^larbin [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^LeechFTP [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Mass\ Downloader [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^MIDown\ tool [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Mister\ PiX [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Navroad [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^NearSite [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^NetAnts [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^NetSpider [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Net\ Vampire [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^NetZIP [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Octopus [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Offline\ Explorer [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Offline\ Navigator [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^PageGrabber [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Papa\ Foto [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^pavuk [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^pcBrowser [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^RealDownload [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^ReGet [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^SiteSnagger [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^SmartDownload [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^SuperBot [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^SuperHTTP [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Surfbot [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^tAkeOut [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Teleport\ Pro [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^VoidEYE [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Web\ Image\ Collector [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Web\ Sucker [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebAuto [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebCopier [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebFetch [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebGo\ IS [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebLeacher [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebReaper [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebSauger [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Website\ eXtractor [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Website\ Quester [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebStripper [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebWhacker [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebZIP [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Wget [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Widow [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WWWOFFLE [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Xaldon\ WebSpider [OR] 
              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Zeus 
              RewriteRule ^.* - [F,L]

Is there another way beside permissions to deny a browser from viewing my .htaccess file?

You can insert the below code into your .htaccess file to generate a 403 error code whenever a browser tries to read your .htaccess file as plain text. This is useful when you have a .htpasswd file set as well:

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

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