I just installed AceSEF free version (I believe the version number is 1.5.0) on my Joomla site, and my results have been disastrous. First, the module complains that .htaccess isn't present. When I renamed htaccess.txt to .htaccess, everything on my site gave IIS 500 errors, and none of the suggested changes to .htaccess made any difference. When I rename .htaccess back to htaccess.txt, every page of my site gives me a 404 error - presumably because AceSEF has changed the SEF URL's but isn't able to operate properly. The only way I've been able to make my site usable at all is to turn off the global SEF URL option, meaning that instead of giving me better URL's, now I'm stuck with completely search-engine-UNfriendly URL's!

I've tried to get some help from my hosting company (hostingatoz), but so far they've been unable to suggest any way of getting their server to work with .htaccess present. Basically, I need to be able to do one of two things: either back out AceSEF entirely (including all database changes), or (preferably) get the thing working properly.

Any useful suggestions will be most appreciated; at the moment I'm extremely unhappy with this product and the quality of documentation and support offered.

-Don Radlauer
www.asymmetricconflict.org

I just installed AceSEF free version (I believe the version number is 1.5.0) on my Joomla site, and my results have been disastrous. First, the module complains that .htaccess isn't present. When I renamed htaccess.txt to .htaccess, everything on my site gave IIS 500 errors, and none of the suggested changes to .htaccess made any difference. When I rename .htaccess back to htaccess.txt, every page of my site gives me a 404 error - presumably because AceSEF has changed the SEF URL's but isn't able to operate properly. The only way I've been able to make my site usable at all is to turn off the global SEF URL option, meaning that instead of giving me better URL's, now I'm stuck with completely search-engine-UNfriendly URL's!

I've tried to get some help from my hosting company (hostingatoz), but so far they've been unable to suggest any way of getting their server to work with .htaccess present. Basically, I need to be able to do one of two things: either back out AceSEF entirely (including all database changes), or (preferably) get the thing working properly.

Any useful suggestions will be most appreciated; at the moment I'm extremely unhappy with this product and the quality of documentation and support offered.

-Don Radlauer
www.asymmetricconflict.org

Follow-up: I figured out how to revert to the default Joomla SEF URL's, by disabling Apache mod-rewrite. This means that I'm back where I started - with AceSEF completely disabled, but at least without completely unoptimized URL's.

Still, I'd be much happier getting AceSEF working rather than just having to give up and uninstall it!

Disabling the Apache mod-rewrite dos not disable AceSEF. Here you can see the AceSEF Requirements, they're not soo much:
www.joomace.net/support/docs/acesef/inst...grading/requirements

I'm afraid you're wrong - at least in the sense that AceSEF is definitely not usable in my environment. It does "work" in the sense that it does something, but it doesn't work in the sense of leaving my site usable.

I uninstalled AceSEF a little while ago, and when your message appeared I reinstalled it. I currently have SEF enabled and Apache mod-rewrite disabled. The AceSEF control panel screen shows the following error message: "* NOTE: Apache mod_rewrite option is currently disabled. To use AceSEF, please enable it from the Global Configuration page. * There is a problem with your .htaccess file". And every page on my site now gives me a 404 error (with the AceSEF version of the URL)! If I rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess, every page request gives me an IIS 500 error - so that's clearly not a solution either.

Time to uninstall again, I think.

Any updates on this issue? Basically, if AceSEF works only with Apache mod_rewrite and .htaccess, then it is dishonest to say that it's compatible with IIS. Maybe it works with *some* IIS installations, but it's hit or miss - and considering what I've gone through trying to get this to work, I'd have been much better off if your promotional stuff simply said that this add-on was supported only for Apache-driven websites.

I'm sorry but I'm not wrong, disabling the Apache mod-rewrite does not disable AceSEF, it makes AceSEF unstable and that's what you're experiencing.

No, it's not supported only for Apache-driven websites, it just requires a rewrite module for Apache or IIS, check this article for more info:
www.joomace.net/support/docs/acesef/faq/acesef-and-iis

That information would be useful if I had control of my hosting environment; but in a shared hosting environment, I can't force my hosting company to install new patches; and when I tried using web.config instead of .htaccess, AceSEF complained that .htaccess wasn't present.

Then I would advice you to not use any SEF component, it'll give you a headache with IIS on shared hosting enviroment.

So I'm beginning to gather...

-Don

P.S. I'd just go ahead and migrate to Linux, but my hosting company doesn't offer Cold Fusion on Linux - and we plan on doing CF stuff in future. Have I mentioned that I hate computers?