Microsoft FrontPage: Server-side FAQ

• How can I make sure that FrontPage extensions are currently running on my web hosting server?

For UNIX plans

1. Go into the account via FTP or shell and make sure that the following files and folders exist on the server:

/.htaccess
/_private/
/_vti_bin/
/_vti_cnf/
/_vti_inf.html
/_vti_log/
/_vti_pvt/
/_vti_txt/
/postinfo.html

The above-mentioned files and directories are created by a FrontPage installation. If they are not present, the FrontPage extensions are not installed.

2. Open your site "live" on the server. For more information on opening your site this way, read How do I open my site "live" in FrontPage?. If you can connect successfully, the FrontPage extensions are installed and working. If not, the FrontPage extensions are most likely corrupt and will probably need to be reinstalled.

For Windows 2000 plans

By default, FrontPage extensions are preinstalled on all of our Windows 2000 accounts. To check if they are running properly, just follow the instructions provided How do I open my site "live" in FrontPage? and try to connect to your web site remotely on the server. If you cannot connect, the FrontPage extensions are probably corrupt and they will probably need to be reinstalled.

Note that you can also use FTP to login to a Windows 2000 account in order to verify if FrontPage extensions have been installed.  After logging into the account through FTP, you should see the following:

_private
_vti_inf.html
_vti_log

If those files are present, then the extensions are installed.

• How can I be sure the account has enough disk space for FrontPage extensions?

Installing FrontPage extensions can increase disk space usage by 33%. So, you need to be sure that enough space is available before beginning the installation:

1. If customers disk space usage is more than 50MB, check to see how much disk space is being used by e-mail. This can be done by viewing the stats/mail folder via FTP.

2. Determine the total amount of web site content being used by the site. To do this, subtract the amount of e-mail disk space used by the site from its total disk space.

3. If the web site content is more than 50MB, please contact Technical Support for assistance.

• How do I determine whether FrontPage extensions are installed on an customer's account?

When FrontPage extensions are installed, the following directories are present on UNIX-based hosting accounts:

_vti_bin
_vti_cnf
_vti_inf.html
_vti_log
_vti_pvt
_vti_txt

Further, the .htaccess file in the root directory is also modified to appear as follows (Note: In the last three lines, be sure to substitute the appropriate server and userID information in order to recreate the FrontPage-modified .htaccess file for any UNIX-based account):

=====
# -FrontPage-

IndexIgnore .htaccess */.??* *~ *# */HEADER* */README* */_vti*

<Limit GET POST>
order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from all
</Limit>
<Limit PUT DELETE>
order deny,allow
deny from all
</Limit>
AuthName www999
AuthUserFile /www999/web/userid/_vti_pvt/service.pwd
AuthGroupFile /www999/web/userid/_vti_pvt/service.grp
=====

• What are some commonly encountered FrontPage installation errors?

Urchin

If Urchin 3 is currently installed and generating reports for a user's site, our FrontPage installation tool lists the .htaccess file in /stats/urchin/.htaccess as being invalid. A software solution to this bug is under development. For now, to work around the bug, rename the .htaccess file and replace it AFTER the FrontPage extensions have been installed.

Password Protected Directories, .htaccess, custom index files, and custom 404 documents

The FrontPage installation tool will give a warning about any directory that is password protected by our Web Passwords tool or any htaccess file that has been previously modified. Custom Index files, Custom 404 documents, and machine name re-directs will all error out if the htaccess file does not have the following line as the first line:

# -Microsoft FrontPage-

Two Accounts on the Same Server

If a client has (or had) two accounts with the same domain name on one server, the FrontPage installation tool may not work correctly. The tool will always try to use the userID that appears first. For example, if "jandjp" precedes "jandj1", "jandjp" will be used instead of "jandj1". In such an instance, a support case must be escalated to the Senior Support staff. In turn, they will have the Systems Administrators modify the httpd.conf file for that user's virtual server.

Reinstallation of the FrontPage Extensions and How It Affects the Customer's Account

Reinstalling FrontPage extensions on a UNIX platform results in the following:

• the FrontPage password to change

• child-webs are converted to folders

• FrontPage components will need to be reset. 

• FrontPage forms and themes will be lost. 

You will need to republish your web site for the complete recovery of the site's files.

• When connecting to the site with FrontPage, I receive the error "The system cannot find the file specified. " What does that mean?

This problem, regardless of whether it is on our UNIX or our Windows 2000 servers, indicates a problem with the FrontPage configuration files (that is, the "_vti*" files).

For Windows 2000 plans

The FrontPage extensions should be reinstalled immediately.

For UNIX plans

Check the FrontPage configuration files for any permissions problems. Below are the correct permissions/ownerships for the FrontPage configuration files. In each group, the first line contains the filename; the second line contains the permissions, and the final line shows the ownership. For example, in the first group, the filename is ".htaccess"; the permissions are "-rw-r-r- (644), and the ownership is "userid: client".

.htaccess
-rw-r-r- (644)
userid:client

_private
drwxr-xr-x (755)
userid:client

_vti_bin
drwxr-xr-x (755)
userid:client

_vti_cnf
drwxr-xr-x (755)
userid:client

_vti_log
drwxr-xr-x (755)
userid:client

_vti_pvt
drwxr-xr-x (755)
userid:client

_vti_txt
drwxr-xr-x (755)
userid:client

Also, make sure that you are connected to the Internet if you receive this message.

• What causes the error message "FrontPage was unable to write to file <file-name>"? 

This message is produced when a person publishes or saves changes to a web site that has reached its maximum disk quota.

• What happens to FrontPage when there is no .htaccess?

When the customer tries to publish the site "live," FrontPage returns the following error:

10/18/2001 12:40:00
HTTP 500 Internal Server Error
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<TITLE>500 Internal Server Error</TITLE>
</HEAD><BODY>
<H1>Internal Server Error</H1>
The server encountered an internal error or
misconfiguration and was unable to complete
your request.<P>
Please contact the server administrator,
webmaster@examplecompany.com and inform them of the time the error occurred,
and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.<P>
More information about this error may be available
in the server error log.<P>
</BODY></HTML>

Note that the above-mentioned error message is located in the wecerr.txt file.

• How do I fix bad .htaccess files when my account undergoes a server move?
  
  It is not uncommon for a server move to leave the .htaccess file unmodified thus resulting in login problems with FrontPage. The first that that you should do is open the .htaccess file and look at the bottom of it for something like the following:
  
  ---------------------------------
  AuthName www999
  AuthUserFile /www999/web/userid/_vti_pvt/service.pwd
  AuthGroupFile /www999/web/userid/_vti_pvt/service.grp
  ---------------------------------
  
  
  Using the web site's IP address, try to login to FrontPage. If you cannot login, check the .htaccess file to make sure that it is configured correctly. Specifically, verify that the server (for example, "www999" as shown above) matches the server in the account's Edit Account Information (EAI) screen. In addition, check that the UserID in the EAI is correct. If either the server or UserID do not match, edit the .htaccess file, changing the server and/or UserID as necessary. No other changes should be necessary.
  
  Any subwebs on the account will also have their own .htaccess file that will require editing. Likewise, their access.cnf files will editing. Note that the access.cnf file is found in the _vti_pvt folders of the Root Web as well as in any subwebs that have been created.

• How do I add or remove entries from the _vti_pvt/services.cnf file?
  
  The _vti_pvt/services.cnf file contains a list of directories that will be shown as subwebs in FrontPage. However, those directories will not be accessible as they do not have FrontPage extensions in them. So, this is essentially a list of non-FrontPage accessible directories.

You can add and remove directories from _vti_pvt/services.cnf  by editing it in a normal text editor such as Vi (a popular cross-platform text editor). The _vti_pvt/services.cnf file contains one restricted directory per line with the complete path from the root of the customers home directory. For example:

/stats              
/merchant
Form confirmation page not displaying

If the Form Confirmation page was not created in HTML, FrontPage will produce an error. Also the customer can link to a local file on their computer (C:\test.html) and it will not be able to bring that page up on a different computer, unless there's a test.html there.

• What are some general connectivity issues and how would I troubleshoot them?

FrontPage publishes web sites through the HTTP protocol. Therefore, it is necessary to have a very stable connection for publishing. The following conditions will cause connectivity errors:

• Disk quota issues: These result in the response "Unable to open file xxx for writing." Although disk quota is not a connectivity issue per se, it does result in connectivity error message.

• Root Web Busy errors: Normally, this is caused by two users trying to login to an account at the same time. This may happen, for instance, if the customer is on the phone with Tech Support. Typically, the fix for this issue is to wait for approximately half-an-hour. If that does not fix the problem, there may be a server-wide issue. Delegate that issue.

• Server Timeouts: These usually result from connectivity issues and large file data transfer. Have the customer run a trace to the site to determine if such issues are involved.

• Firewalls that block FrontPage: These firewalls will also block all HTTP access for the customer. If he or she cannot connect through a web browser, run the standard connectivity tests, for example traceroutes, etc.

Please note: the information on this page applies to ITS web hosting plans. It may or may not apply to other environments. If you are looking for a feature described here, or better support from your hosting provider, please consider hosting your site with ITS!

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