Is Your Server running PHPsuexec?

  For security reasons, many servers now run the PHPsuexec mode instead of the regular PHP apache mode. Read this page to get crucial information about the differences between these two modes and how to troubleshoot your PHP scripts if they are not working. 

When PHP runs as an Apache module, it requires some of your scripts to have the permissions set to "777" and it executes the scripts as the user/group of the web server itself (which is usually set to "nobody"). This is a potential security risk because it allows the web server and virtually everyone else to write data over your scripts - leaving them open for abuse.

Servers that are now running with the PHPsuexec module are a lot more secure than the old Apache module). The main difference is that your scripts will now execute under your own user/group (instead of the default one on the web server). Another big difference is that your scripts are now not allowed to run with permissions of "777" (you'll get a "500 internal server error" if you try to execute them like that).

What you need to do is set permissions on your script files to "755", which allows you (the owner) to read/execute/write the files and the rest of the world only to read and execute them.

Files and directories also need to be owned by your user/group. You probably don't need to worry about this as all the new files you upload or create will be owned by your user/group automatically.

Previously, when you wanted to change the default settings on our web servers to run your scripts, you would normally do it in your ".htaccess" file. But now, you should use a file called "php.ini" instead.

The "php.ini" file is a small text file that resides on the same folder where your scripts are. To create one, open your favorite text editor (not word processor) like windows notepad and type in the values that you want to run differently than the server defaults.

For example you can turn off the php setting "magic_quotes_gpc" with this line in php.ini: magic_quotes_gpc = no

After you save the file, upload it to the same folder where your scripts are.

If your PHP script is not running or if its giving you an error message, check the following things.

• Check that the php script that you are executing has permissions of no more than 755 (644 will work just fine normally). This is not something that will need to be changed in most cases.
  
  
• Check that the directory permissions that the script resides within is set to a maximum of 755. This also includes directories that the script would need to have access to also.
  
  
• Check that you do not have a .htaccess file with php_values within it. They will cause a 500 Internal server error, when executing the script. The php_values will need to be removed from your .htaccess file and a php.ini put in its place, containing the php directives as explained above.
  
  

If after checking these things your script still doesn't run, send your server's helpdesk and I'm sure they will gladly help you figure things out.