Server Configuration

Admin accustomed to using .htaccess to enable or disable functionality needn’t worry because our servers automatically handle all the functions typically associated with it.

Servers with the AllowOverride directive on, a prerequisite for .htaccess files, process requests at a much slower rate than NGINX servers. In fact, NGINX servers process many more requests per server than their Apache counterparts in large part because they don’t support .htaccess.

NOTE:

If your site has a .htaccess file in the root directory, WordPress or a plugin might attempt to write to that file when configurations change, but this is not a problem as our servers will simply ignore that file.

Some of the common uses for .htaccess that our servers automatically achieve are:

• Permalinks – Our servers are configured to automatically handle permalinks for you.
• Caching – Our servers handle caching for you, no need to install plugins or modify .htaccess files.
• Redirects/rewrites – Redirects can be handled using a plugin or via custom server-side redirects that WPMU DEV support can install for you.
• Security – Many WordPress security plugins have you modify the .htaccess file to install security rules. Fortunately, WPMU DEV hosting already has these security precautions in place at the server level.

Regardless of what you’re trying to achieve, contact support as noted above and we will help you figure out how to implement the same thing without creating or modifying a .htaccess file.

As noted above, our server architecture is built on Nginx which does not support .htaccess. However, there may be times when you need some custom rules added to your server, to handle some 3rd-party plugin functionality for example.

As our system is managed WordPress, you do not have root access to the server and cannot make those changes yourself.

In cases like this, simply contact support and we’ll review the code you wish to add. If it’s compatible with our server infrastructure, we’ll be happy to get it added for you.

Modifying file & folder permissions on sites we host is not allowed.

Folder permissions will always default to 755, and files to 644.

The WP source (wp-includes) and related files and folders are read-only for your security, which prevents unintentional downtime and common security exploits.

The maximum file upload size for all NonprofitPress Cloud sites is 128Mb, regardless of plan or hosting tier. Customers can restrict the size of uploaded files, but the maximum size cannot be increased.

This cap should be more than enough for most sites, and is set on our managed hosting for WordPress to limit the potential of attacks that can exploit large file size limits with huge post requests and overload your server.

Files larger than 128Mb should be uploaded by SFTP/SSH. We also support the Big File Uploads plugin, which breaks large files into smaller chunks so you can upload files of [virtually] any size you need.

Customers can add or remove file types from the allowed upload list as needed but should keep in mind that each added file type creates a potential security risk for your site or network. We recommend that you add only those file types you need.

WordPress allows uploading of these file types by default:

• Images -  jpg, jpeg, png, gif, ico
  
• Documents - pdf, doc, docx, ppt, pptx, pps, ppsx, odt, xls, xlsx, psd
  
• Audio - mp3, m4a, ogg, wav
  
• Video - mp4, m4v, mov, wmv, avi, mpg, ogv, 3gp, 3g2
  

Multisite admins can adjust both the file size and file type limits for their network under Dashboard > Network Admin > Settings > Network Settings. For assistance with this, please reach out to our team - we are more than happy to assist!