500 Internal Server Error Troubleshooting Print

It is quite certain that if you've been browsing for a bit, you would difinitely have bumped into the dreaded 500 Internal Server Error. While the name seems a bit vague, this is because this problem can be caused by quite a lot of things, making it even trickier to troubleshoot.


Check the logs

You starting point should always be the logs, as they would normally contain the reason for the error:

Access logs:

/usr/local/cpanel/logs/access_logs

Domain error logs:

/usr/local/cpanel/logs/error_log


Check .htaccess

.htaccess files are usually to blame, as the wrong syntax or request can lead to a 500 Internal Server Error, so disabling or renaming it can be a way to test this and recover your website.


CGI/Perl Syntax errors

Syntax errors in .cgi or .pl files can lead to 500 errors, so checking your scripts should be done if the logs are pointing that way. Sometimes, if you are not using a simple text editor, this can compromise your script, or sometimes, the Perl modules required a missing, with the same outcome.


Keep permissions at 0755 or lower

Having permissions higher than 0755 would make SuPHP return a 500 Internal Server Error, so better go through your files and make sure everything is properly set.


PHP timing out

If PHP connections are being made to remote sources and not getting closed, the output will be a 500 server error, so limiting these and setting a timeout period would avoid such problems and speed up the loading time as well.