I receive an Internal Server Error or HTTP 500 message

If you have just installed or trying to install the PHPKB Knowledge Base Software on your site and you’re receiving an Internal Server Error or HTTP 500 error, there are two likely causes:

1. Your hosting provider’s web server’s configuration prohibits certain statements in .htaccess files. .htaccess files are used to control the SEO friendly URLs using Apache’s mod_rewrite() module. There are other commands in there that may also cause an Internal Server Error if your web host has disabled the ability to use those commands. If this is the case, you’ll need to ask your web host to review the .htaccess file to determine which commands they do not allow inside the .htaccess file.
2. Your hosting provider’s security settings prohibit PHP scripts with incorrect file permissions from running. Some servers will not let PHP files run if they are writeable by the public or group users. Ensure that the PHP files in your base directory and in your admin directory have a permission mode of 0644. To do this in your FTP program, change the file permissions (or CHMOD) to 0644.

To resolve this issue, follow these steps:

1. Open the .htaccess file, located in the root directory of PHPKB software.
2. Edit the first line, that reads Options +FollowSymLinks All -Indexes and change it to # Options +FollowSymLinks All -Indexes.
3. Save the file and try again to load PHPKB software. If your software loads correctly now, disregard the following steps.
4. Using your FTP client, ensure none of the files and directories on your site are set to the permissions 666 or 777. The permission setting 755 or 644 will work.
5. After checking and fixing any incorrect file permission settings, try again to load your site.
6. If your site still displays the Internal Server Error message, contact your hosting provider and ask them to confirm that the Internal Server Error message is not related to your .htaccess file or any of your file permission settings.
7. If, after contacting your hosting provider, your site still displays this message, please open a support ticket with us. Ask your hosting provider for any error logs relating to the Internal Server Error message and make sure to include or attach them with your support ticket.