Thumbnails + thumb.php + mod_security

kah22

Hi this is a question for you tech guys out there and it seems to be about mod_security.

My current ISP is f2s. I've recently bought a premium blog theme Thesis 1.8. The thumbnails on the theme sometimes work, sometimes do not. I've been having mighty difficulties with this aspect of the theme on my main blog and this afternoon decided to build a very basic one, just to see if I could spot the fault or if I had made a silly mistake, but the same problem keeps appearing.

HERE is the test site in question - remember it's only testing.

The problem is with the thumbnails: sometimes they are there, sometimes they are not. And that doesn't make a very good looking site. If you click through to the site can you see them?

For those of you who might have any knowledge of these type of templates I've checked that the cache and permissions are as recommended. I've used the full url in pointing to the image, including the http bit and I've cut and pasted it direct from WordPress. I've checked the allow_url_include ON; bit and it is as suggested.

While looking for an answer to my problem I came across a message which said that some providers block the timthumb script and that we should contact them and 'ask them to add these rules [ 1234234,340151 ] to mod_security for my domain(s).'

I contacted f2s saying '
I have a wordpress theme, Thesis 1.8, which creates thumbnails using the script thumb.php. I am having awful problems with this. On the thumbnail site, and through the Thesis help desk, I've come across the following advice. They suggest we contact our ISP – they are writing specifically about host gator but say it may apply to other service providers and ask them if timthumb is blocked on their site and ask them to
"add following rules [ 1234234,340151 ] to mod_security for www.yourwebsite.com Please whitelist for the domain'

Simple it would seem but I've received the following from f2s: Thank you for contacting the freedom2surf Technical Support Team. I am afraid that we do not offer support for 3rd party applications (like wordpress) set up or trouble shooting. You also need to be aware that we can not add rules in mod_security for customers.

At first sight it doesn't appear as if f2s are NOT going to be helpful.

I have to confess I have no idea what mod_security is but from what f2s are saying it must be something I can access and change myself – am I correct and if so is it easy to do and how do I do it?


I appreciate that this is outside the normal range of questions posed on this forum but you tech guys are pretty good so any advice would be appreciated.