I have been hosted by a local ISP for 7 years who I think is using a Windows platform.

Now, because his rates are all out of line I want to find another host.

I signed up with a new host and selected a Linux server but discovered it was case sensitive and often people could not find the page. For example, in my page http://www.ourheritage.net/bb.html if someone typed in "Bb" as in http://www.ourheritage.net/Bb.html they would not find the page. (These are with my old host so both work)

How do I solve this? Should I specify I need a windows server when I try out another host?

Originally Posted by trekker

I have been hosted by a local ISP for 7 years who I think is using a Windows platform.

Now, because his rates are all out of line I want to find another host.

I signed up with a new host and selected a Linux server but discovered it was case sensitive and often people could not find the page. For example, in my page http://www.ourheritage.net/bb.html if someone typed in "Bb" as in http://www.ourheritage.net/Bb.html they would not find the page. (These are with my old host so both work)

How do I solve this? Should I specify I need a windows server when I try out another host?

Linux is by nature case sensitive with its file systems unlike windows. Is there any reason people need to type bb.html. pages should be lower case anyway.

You will either need to change all your page file names so they work on linux, or stick with windows hosting. It's a good idea to have all your pages in lowercase so you do not run into issues such as this, so it may be a good idea to go through the excersise of changing them all, even if you stay with a windows provider.

Another option is to ask if your linux host if they have what's called 'mod_speling' installed on their server, or if they would be willing to install it. This module allows for case insensitive URLs. It'd be unlikely, however, for your host to install it if it's not already there.

What I would do is rename everything to lowercase as already suggested, and the use mod_rewrite to redirect the old filenames to the new ones to prevent any loss of SEO.

Here's a nice tutorial on mod_rewrite