Root htaccess file is blank

[AITpro Admin]

Great!  Thanks for the info.  This could save someone else some headaches.  😉

[Michael Milauskas]

Hi, I just attempted to install BPS for the second time. This time I think things went better. I’m not getting any internal server errors, however, I am still seeing the warning at the top of my WordPress admin page:

BPS Alert! Your site does not appear to be protected by BulletProof Security

I have followed all the steps in the read me file–backed up existing htaccess files and activated BPS for the root and admin folders.

In the security status page I see this:

The htaccess file that is activated in your root folder is:
BULLETPROOF .48.1 >>>>>>> SECURE .HTACCESS

Either a BPS htaccess file was NOT found in your root folder or you have not activated BulletProof Mode for your Root folder yet

Furthermore, I checked the content of the root folder htaccess file and it’s blank. There IS content (code) in the wp_admin htaccess file, but not in the root folder htaccess file. What have I done wrong this time?

[AITpro Admin]

Your Topic was merged into this existing topic since it is a continuation of the same problem or similar problem.  Do you have any other security plugins installed?

Deactivate all of your plugins and try and activate BulletProof Mode for your root folder again.

What is your custom permalink structure?

[Michael Milauskas]

Hi, Thanks.

My custom permalink structure is /%post_id%/%postname%/

I had a couple plugins installed to help ID/prevent attacks. One was Ultimate Security Checker. That’s still there but deactivated. The other is Anti-Malware by ELI (Get Off Malicious Scripts) although I don’t think that’s “security” per se. That one is active.

I deactivated all plugins except for BPS and activated Bulletproof mode. Then everything looked good in the security setting page (everything green). I refreshed the page and the warning at the top of the page disappeared.

I then reactivated my plugins and the warning came back. My root htaccess file is again blank. Should I be looking in the htaccess file that I created (the one that existed prior to installing BPS or is there another htacess file in the root directory? This is the only one I ever see.

[AITpro Admin]

Ok it sounds like the problem is that one of your plugins is wiping out/deleting the root .htaccess file code.  Now try this.

deactivate all of your plugins again.

activate Root Folder BulletProof Mode.

Lock your root .htaccess file on the Edit/Upload/Download page.  By locking your Root .htaccess file you are preventing other plugins or anything else from writing to your root .htaccess file.

activate all of your plugins again.

[Michael Milauskas]

There was a conflict with the All in One Events Calendar plugin. I reactivated all plugins one by one and when I activated the Calendar, it makes the BPS warning show up at the top of the page.

It looks like BPS is functional now. We just had another episode where the site went down and we got an Internal Server Error. My colleague did (as he has done so many times up to now) rename the htaccess file and create a new blank one which brought the site back up.

DO you think that with BPS running we won’t have to deal with this anymore (the server errors)?

[AITpro Admin]

Yes, there is a known issue with that plugin.  It uses the WordPress flush_rewrite_rules function (and many other plugins also use this function).  Locking your root .htaccess file prevents other plugins from wiping out/deleting your website security code/root .htaccess code.

http://forum.ait-pro.com/forums/topic/read-me-first-pro/#flush-rewrite-rules

When you see 500 errors that means that you have invalid code in your .htaccess file.  If you use BulletProof Modes then you should not see 500 errors since the .htaccess code does not contain any errors.  If you are manually uploading .htaccess files then the code MUST NOT contain any mistakes and the .htaccess file MUST have been created with ONLY Notepad or Notepad++ – NOT Word, NOT WordPad and NOT any other editing applications – ONLY Notepad or Notepad++ will create valid .htaccess files.

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