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    4. My .htaccess has changed, what do i do to avoid it again...?

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    My .htaccess has changed, what do i do to avoid it again...?

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    • Yonnir
      Yonnir last edited by

      Hello

      Today i notice that our site did not auto changed from without www to with, when i checked the .htaccess file i notice # in-front of each line and i know we did not insert it in there, after i removed it it worked fine.

      The only changes that we did recently was to a mobile version to the site but the call to autodirect is in a JS and not in the .htaccess,

      could it be the server..? is there any way that anything else might cause this...?

      The site is HTML and WP could it be because of that...?

      Thank's

      Simo

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • eunaneunan
        eunaneunan last edited by

        Before you changed the file back did you see the last time it was modified? might give you a clue what happened.  As Alan said check other files have not been changed (malware/hacked)  again checking the modified dates gives you a clue ( files you know have not been touched having a recent modified date, all the files having the same modified date... etc)

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • AlanMosley
          AlanMosley last edited by

          Malware often changes the htaccess file, you should check to see if there is anything else in there.

          WordPress sites are prone to being hacked. i develop in .net and have never ever had a site hacked, yet i see this is WP and joomla all the time.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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