# NEED HELP! htaccess returns Error 500

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/need-help-htaccess-returns-error-500/238516>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [September 12, 2007, 8:26am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/need-help-htaccess-returns-error-500/238516 "2007-09-12T08:26:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mptrader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@mptrader](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/mptrader)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 8:26am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/need-help-htaccess-returns-error-500/238516/1 "2007-09-12T08:26:53Z")

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Hi all,

I’m trying to use RewriteRule to create clean url on my website. When I tested it locally, it returns:  
**Server error!**

The server encountered an internal error and was unable to complete your request. Either the server is overloaded or there was an error in a CGI script.  
If you think this is a server error, please contact the [[U][COLOR=#0066cc]webmaster[/COLOR][/U]](mailto:admin@localhost).  
**Error 500**

Can anyone please tell me how this could happen (I’m a newbie and never use htaccess before)?

Here’s an example of my htaccess script:

Options +FollowSymLinks  
RewriteEngine On  
RewriteBase /  
RewriteCond %{REQUEST\_URI} !^/robots\.txt$  
RewriteCond %{HTTP\_HOST} !^www\.example\.com$ [NC]  
RewriteRule ^(.\*)$ [http://localhost/paula/index.php$1](http://localhost/paula/index.php%241) [R=301,L]

Thanks in advance for your reply.

Regards,  
Martin