I’m writing this article specifically for people hosted on godaddy that have had the following .htaccess, mod_rewrite or addhandler problems on shared or premium hosting accounts for various open source applications, such as (but not limited to) Wordpress, Drupal, BBPress, Moodle, Geeklog, PHPNuke, Postnuke, and more!
Short list of potential issues:
- problems with permalinks in Wordpress
- problems with clean URL’s in Drupal
- problems with pretty url’s in BBPress
- problems with Wordpress MU
- ANY mod_rewrite problems in a sub-directory, subdomain, sub-folder, mapped domain, i.e., a domain you setup in goDaddy’s Domain Management -> Assign Domain to Hosting Site feature
I have struggled with two issues time and time again on a goDaddy shared or premium account. If I go into “Domain management -> Assign Domain” and “map” a domain to a folder of the root URL, I have problems with any site that needs to use an .htaccess file for “rewrite” the URL’s using a feature called “mod_rewrite” – especially Wordpress and Drupal.
I came across a fix today that made all those problems go away forever. To be able to do what I’m about to tell you, you must also be hosting your domain name with goDaddy.
In your godaddy control panel, go to “Settings -> Domain Management”.
Click on “Add New Record”
In the very first line note the IP address of your “@” host, as you’ll by typing this into the box that comes up when you click to add a new record. In the first field type an asterik (*). In the second field type the IP address of your “@” host. Leave the drop down at one hour. Click “ok” to save.
That’s it – you’re done! There should be no fiddling with your .htaccess files at all.
Once I applied that simple fix – everything worked again.
I’ve also had problems when I’ve attempted to get .html or .htm files to parse PHP code as if they were .php files on goDaddy, or with applications that had to use PHP5. That fix is also really, really easy. All you have to do is create an .htaccess file with the following 2 lines:
AddHandler x-httpd-php5 .php
AddHandler x-httpd-php .php .htm html
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Thanks for figuring this out.
One suggestion, I believe you meant “Settings -> DNS Manager†instead of “Settings -> Domain Management 
Otherwise, excellent information.
Please edit (or delete) this comment after you edit you instructions.
Thanks again.
I was wondering, what about build a niche store type sites? Is there any way to put them on a subdomain without problems?
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is there a way to get bans sites to work like this?
erica Munoz’s last blog post..Depression Glass Patterns
When I did this I was able to get my BANS site to work…
WOW! Thanks! This worked for me with Wordpress!
hi,
i tried this too, but it said the subdomain is not valid! :(
any clue?
This was helpful to me. Very strange that setting up a wildcard could fix the mod_rewrite issue, but i’ll take it!
thanks.
this was so helpful, i’m putting a link back to you on my site.
ken
@Ken – thanks! That’s why I posted it, it was the instructions that “I” was missing when I had the same problem!![=)]](http://www.jtpratt.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/4.gif)
many thanks
It works perfect.
It is very helpful for many people
Thanks, this worked like a charm! Saved me a ton of time messing with .htaccess to no result, much appreciated.
hi, but I can not find “add a new record” at Godaddy panel. What should I do? Thanks!
Have you seen a situation in which this STOPPED working? I followed your advice on another domain and just tried it again for a different domain. Now, all of a sudden this doesn’t work. What do you think?
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<thanks> man, this was the solution i needed. Searched forever on drupal forums – everyone else was sure it was just a poorly configured .htaccess file. </thanks>
I did this but subdomains still don’t work with mod_rewrite for me.
I have an economy linux hosting plan in godaddy and im using a wordpress blog with the wordpress-subdomains plugin – http://webdev.casualgenius.com/projects/wordpress-subdomains
please help me!
Oren, you can’t have multiple domains with GoDaddy’s economy plan. You have to upgrade to deluxe, unfortunately. Just be careful not to run any Drupal sites on that hosting account, because it will be super slow.
I am not sure if GoDaddy allows economy hosters to have multiple subdomains. Try going through “My Hosting Account” and choosing “my domains.” You should be able to set them up there.
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In fact I did manage to run the plugin. I have contacted their support and they told me that I need to purchase a dedicated IP (2.99$/month) and now it works.
This is very helpful for many people
This was the solution I needed, I have been at it for days trying to get my rss feeds working.
Worth mentioning again go to DNS manager not domain managment
Thanks again.
How to say : Thank you , Merci ! It works ! Incredible, I plan to move away from godaddy … I stay :-)
1000 Merci !
K.