Hosting server wont accpet htaccess, need to increase maximum file upload limit

itpvision

[INDENT]Hello
I need to increase the maximum upload file limit, I used .htacess:

php_value upload_max_filesize 20M
php_value post_max_size 20M
php_value max_execution_time 200
php_value max_input_time 200

Whenever I upload .htaccess to the hosting server, all the site fails, whenever I delete it, the site works fine, I need an alternative to set maximum file upload

Help appreciated
Many Thanks[/INDENT]

Piranha

First up I am not an expert wien it comes to file handling and different settings, someone else here may have some other way to change those settings. But I still want to give my opinion.

The easiest way is to contact the host and ask them why it doesn't work with a custom .htaccess. If they say that it is not allowed, and don't give you another option to allow your uploads you should ditch the host and find another one. After all they are there to make your site work, and if they won't do it another host will.

leatherback

If 'you site fails' when you place an htaccess in your root, that means that the .htaccess is actually being read, and thus, you can use it. However, there is something magically wrong in the file, which causes trouble when loading your file.

I am certainly not and apache config expert, but you can have a look at your log files, and see what the apache error log sais.

If you do no tknow where to look, and the server / control panel does not show any clear signs, you could contact the hosting company, and ask them how to check the apache error logs.

I usually empty the log file, load the page that gives me errors, and then download the logs. Usually you'll only have 1 page load in the log (Which may consist of many many lines of messages!) and that makes it easier to spot what went wrong.

bradgrafelman

As leatherback points out, if something changes (e.g. you get a 500 error code) when you upload a .htaccess file, then the webserver must be reading it.

Since what you posted is semantically correct, it is very likely that your host is running PHP as a CGI binary, not an ISAPI module, meaning that you can't use "php_value" and the like in a .htaccess file (Apache doesn't understand them).

What you might need to do is place a customized php.ini file in the root of your account that will be parsed for your webserver. Note that this is just a guess - you need to contact your web host and explain that you need to change certain PHP configurations to work with your site.

As Piranha noted, if you run into trouble getting the host to meet your needs, you shouldn't hesitate to ditch them - there are numerous other hosts that are waiting to get your business and actually meet your needs.