ScottsWebTips

This was mildly frustrating to say the least, but I think I pinned down the problem.
   

PROBLEM:

I was not able to verify myself as the owner of my website with McAfee Site Advisor.

ERROR:

It appears that the Web site yourdomain.com (or www.yourdomain.com) is returning an HTTP 2xx or 3xx status response code in the header of 404 pages.

We cannot verify a Web site that is configured this way because it allows anyone to verify themselves as the owner of your site. Please update your Web site server configuration to return 404 status codes in the headers for pages that do not exist. Once your site is configured this way then you can return and request a file name verification.

I TRIED VARIOUS SUGGESTIONS THAT FAILED

- Renaming .htaccess to .htaccessold and re-submitting (failed)  note- had to deactivate all plugins and use TwentyTen Theme.  Then I was able to validate my top level domain, but not my sub-domains.

- WordPress Codex suggestions from this link (404 pages) and That failed.
- I added the following to my header.php but they did not work :

<?php header(“HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found”); ?>
<?php header(“Status: 404 Not Found”); ?>
<?php ob_start(); ?>

- Downloaded CURL and checked the results:
C:\CURL>curl -s-D – -o /dev/null http://www.scotts2012gear.com/no-one-here.html

Curl returned 404 NotFound as expected.  So, no help with CURL. 

HYPOTHESIS

Maybe McAfee SiteAdvisor had an issue with Add-On domains (ie sub-domains).  My biggest fear was that only TOP LEVEL Domains can be verified.  Fortunately, that was not the case for my situation. 

An Addon Domain (or Sub-Domain) is a domain name that points to a different subdirectory on your hosting account. This gives you the ability to make the sub-domain look like an entirely different website.

 

STEPS for TOP LEVEL DOMAIN

• - Deactivate all Plugins
• - Use the default theme TwentyTen
• - rename the .htaccess to .htaccessold
• - Go Back to McAfee SiteAdvisor and click “Request Verification File”
• * You should now see the McAfee Validation File name.
• - Create the file and upload to your host in the root directory
• - Go Back to McAfee SiteAdvisor and click the “Verify” Button
• - rename the .htaccessold to .htaccess

Done

STEPS for SUB-DOMAINs

• - Deactivate all Plugins
• - Use the default theme TwentyTen
• - rename the top level htaccess to .htaccessold
• - rename the sub-domain .htaccess to .htaccessold
• - Go Back to McAfee SiteAdvisor and click “Request Verification File”
• * You should now see the McAfee Validation File name.
• - Create the file and upload to your host in the root directory
• - Go Back to McAfee SiteAdvisor and click the “Verify” Button
• - rename the Top level domain .htaccessold to .htaccess
• - rename the sub-domain .htaccessold to .htaccess

Done

I need to do some more testing to be 100% sure of the steps, but at least I was able to validate two of my sites.  I validated my TOP level Domain and one of my sub-domains so far.

Sincerely,

B.Rgds,

Scott