Hostgator Blocks WordPress?

Last week my friend Garick asked me why he couldn’t post to his blog…nothing had changed but every time he would try to post using Windows Live Writer, the server would throw a 500 server error.

I told him to take a peek at the program that lets you post, xmlrpc.php in the browers.  He did so and it gave him the same error.

Hostgator, well, they didn’t actually block WordPress, but they actually blocked the ability to post to the Blog software using a Windows client such as Windows Live Writer.  They disallowed access to this method of remote access…probably due to some security issue.

Issue or not, this is a pain for anyone who prefers to post to WordPress using programs like as Windows Live Writer.  The fix is simple:

1. Go to the root directory of the website (using the file manager in your cpanel) that is giving you problems.  The site should be located under the www directory if you are using Host Gator.
2. Edit the .htaccess file (if you don’t see this file then just create on and then start editing)
3. Add this line: SecFilterEngine Off
4. Click Save.

To see if this works, simply go to the url of your hosted WordPress Blog and type in xmlrpc.php at the end of the url.

If you see nothing on the screen then you are ready to roll.