Need Help: Domain Shows IONOS Default Page Despite Setup

[Arron90]

Hey everyone,

I’m stuck with my domain www.motive-ltd.com

I’ve:

• Updated the CNAME record.
• Uploaded all files via FTP.
• Installed SSL and forced HTTPS.
• Deleted and recreated the hosting account.
• Checked that the NS has fully propagated.

Despite all this, the site only shows the IONOS default page. I’ve double-checked everything, but I can’t figure out what’s wrong.

Has anyone faced this issue before? Any tips on what I might be missing?

Thanks for any help!

Arron

[Greenreader9]

I see a 403 page, so your domain is calling IF servers:

Redirected to InfinityFree 403 Forbidden page

While working on your website, you may be redirected to the InfinityFree 403 error page. This article explains why this can happen, and what you can do to solve it. The website directory or missing (or is in the wrong location) Before checking your website, you should double check the directory on your account that your domain name is linked to. By default, when you create a website with a certain domain name, that domain name will be linked to the folder named htdocs. Any additional domains …

[Arron90]

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate your support.

I’m still seeing the ionos default on my phone, with cache cleared but now see the 403 on my laptop browser.

Thanks for the guide. The first two headings seem most relevant but I can confirm that my directory is linked to the account and it has an index.html file.

So I am still stuck.

[Arron90]

The following lists what I have tried so far:

1. Initial DNS Configuration:

• Initially set up the domain using the name servers (NS) provided by InfinityFree, as requested.

2. File and Directory Permissions:

• Ensured htdocs directory permissions are set to 0755 and files to 0644.

3. .htaccess Adjustments:

• Tried different .htaccess configurations, including enabling directory listing (Options +Indexes) and simplifying the file to rule out misconfigurations.
• Temporarily removed the .htaccess file to test if it was causing the issue.

4. Testing with Simple HTML:

• Created a basic index.html with “Test Page” and placed it in htdocs.
• Attempted to access the file directly via the browser, but still received the 403 error.

5. Domain and Hosting Configuration:

• Verified that the domain is correctly set up in InfinityFree as an addon.
• Confirmed that the domain is pointing to the correct directory.

6. SSL/HTTPS:

• Checked SSL configuration and tested accessing the site via both HTTP and HTTPS.

7. DNS Reconfiguration and Reverting Name Server Change:

• Reverted the change where I pointed the name servers to InfinityFree after realising it deactivated the domain provider’s DNS, which rendered the email associated with my domain useless.
• Instead, managed DNS directly on IONOS by configuring A records to point to InfinityFree’s IP address.
• Despite these efforts, the 403 error still remains.

[Greenreader9]

Few notes myself:

1. You can’t use the www subdomain as you don’t appear to have that setup with your DNS provider

2. The 403 page now appears to be a custom one, so something you did did have an affect.

3. Your favicon file also shows a 403 error, which leads me to think that an .htaccess file is at fault for this.

Please share the contents if the .htaccess file(s) at /, /motive-tld.com and /motive-tld.com/htdocs if they exsist.

[Admin]

I checked your account and I see you deleted the domain from your account and added it again. While that’s a common troubleshooting step, it’s rarely helpful and has some nasty side effects.

One of those side effects is that it changes the directory of your website from htdocs to motive-tld.com/htdocs. But the latter directory does not exist, which is why you get the 403 error.

To fix this, please move the htdocs directory to the right location:

How to move a website to a different directory

Every website is linked to a certain htdocs directory on your account. But sometimes you need to move a website from one htdocs directory to another. This may be necessary if: You are moving to a different domain name (e.g. a free subdomain to a custom domain). You have recreated your domain name and it was assigned to a different directory. Fortunately, there is no need to rebuild your website from scratch. It’s not difficult to move your website from one directory to another. How to move a…

Note that you’ll still need to add a DNS records for the www subdomain if you want that to work.

[Arron90]

Hi there, thanks for the help. I have added an A record with www and my infinityfree hosting ip address so hopefully that helps

The instructions provided dont seem relevant to my problem as I dont have, or cant see an “old” and “new” domain to move the files from and to.

[Arron90]

just to clarify, when I say “old” and “new”, I’m not looking for those terms specifically… I mean I only have the one domain in my File manager available

[Arron90]

So now I am stuck at step 2 of the guide:

2. Cut the old htdocs folder

Now we go to the location where your old htdocs folder lives it does not live anywhere so I cannot complete this step. This can be the folder of your previous domain name, or the root folder.

Right click this htdocs folder, and click Cut.

[Arron90]

@Admin

I checked your account and I see you deleted the domain from your account and added it again. While that’s a common troubleshooting step, it’s rarely helpful and has some nasty side effects.

One of those side effects is that it changes the directory of your website from htdocs to motive-tld.com/htdocs. But the latter directory does not exist, which is why you get the 403 error.

To fix this, please move the htdocs directory to the right location

I appear to have fixed it as follows:

Open file manager

Create folder named motive-ltd.com

Moved my htdocs folder inside the motive-ltd.com folder

Seems to be working fine!

Good old chatGPT troubleshooting