Hi all and sundry

I have burnt at least 3.5 hrs with this problem. Talk about going
insane and firing off salvos of expletives.

This is my scenario. Using Contribute to connect to a site, and I get
right through the connection setup to the point of selecting the
directory, BUT after browsing and selecting the public_html directoy
then NEXT, I got the error "Cannont verify your connection
information".

As I could browse for the remote web site directory, I have the correct
FTP account credentials and using a standalone FTP client confirms
this.

The problem relates to the fact that during this final connection setup
phase, Contribute does a number of operations on test files on the web
site such as create, rename, move etc and crucially tests READING THE
TEST FILE OVER HTTP.

After searching far and wide, I came across discussions about the exact
problem and the issue is related to Apache mod security settings which
apply to all hosted web sites on the server. What this Apache security
does is to deny any http request to a file that in in the form tmp*.htm
But my ISP will not modify the Apache mod security, stating that it is
against their security policy!!!

If this is such a security issue, isn't it strange that Macromedia use
test files called TMPxxxxx.htm !!!??? I wonder how many people have
burnt hours on this issue.

So is there a solution to this?
I am yet to ever use files called tmp*.htm, so if I could just get past
the connection phase I would be fine to continue using Contribute.
Does anyone know of a hack to
1. Get Contribute to use differently named test files (ie NOT TMP*.htm)
2. Avoid the connection process by tricking or hacking Contribute in
the registry or wherever to enter the site manually, and so avoiding
this drama

Maybe it would be possible to temporarily host the domain in question
on my own DNS server and on an in house Apache server (without these
security MODS) to masquerade the real site at my ISP. Then after
Contribute has made this initial connection, delete the domain records
from my own DNS so the Contribute connection then goes to the ISP.

How have other people got around this problem?

I would be well pleased to know.

Cheers and beers
Gordon