Apache

Includes handy things you can do if your site runs on an Apache web server, such as password protecting your pages.

mod_rewrite Tutorial for Absolute Beginners

Matt Doyle / 3 January 2010

Writing a URL mod_rewrite is a marvellous feature of the Apache Web server. It’s very flexible and can do all sorts of useful things.

mod_rewrite can be quite tricky for beginners to pick up due to its somewhat complicated syntax and processing mechanism. However, once you understand a few basic concepts then you can use mod_rewrite to do some pretty clever things with your site.

In this tutorial you’ll find out what mod_rewrite is, and the kind of things you can use it for. You’ll learn how to create a few basic mod_rewrite rules, and you’ll explore some useful real-world examples that you can use on your own website.

Making a Custom Error Page

Matt Doyle / 16 October 2006

Introduction

You’ve probably seen the standard Apache 404 error page many times, when you’ve visited a Web page that no longer exists:

Not very pretty, is it? It doesn’t help much either. Something like the following would be much more useful:

The second error page looks better, is more friendly, and gives the visitor some more options to try (as opposed to just going to another website!).

In this tutorial we’ll show you how to set up your website to serve your own error page rather than the default Apache one.

Password Protecting Your Pages with htaccess

Matt Doyle / 3 October 2005

Introduction

You may have visited a web page that pops up a dialog box similar to this one:

If you don’t know the username and password to enter, then you can’t access the page or site – it’s “password protected”. It’s sometimes handy to be able to password protect your pages like this – for example:

You’re building a new site, but you only want yourself (and maybe a select few) to be able to view the work-in-progress.
You have an area of your site that you never want the general public to have access to – for example, your web stats or private pages.
You have some paid (subscription) content on your site that only subscribers should be able to access.

Apache lets you password protect individual files, folders, or your entire site fairly easily. Read on to find out how it’s done.

Apache

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