I have two Godaddy accounts now. One is for a dedicated server, the other is for a deluxe share hosting package. Actually I do not need any share hosting once I get a dedicated server, but someone bought this for me, so I spent some time inspecting how good / bad it is.
I should regard myself as a Godaddy loyal client. I am 100% satisfied with their dedicated server service, and also, Godaddy domain management is the most powerful and convenient I have ever seen. However, Godaddy share hosting is definitely not something workable for me.
I am recently struggling at setting up magento in Godaddy share hosting. Magento setup is 50% successful. I mean, magento can run homepage, wishlist, popular search, etc all right, but it run into blank pages at many points, e.g. about us, customer service, etc. Initially I thought it was mod_rewrite problem, so I used phpinfo to check. I did not find mod_rewrite enabled. I quickly installed wordpress to double check, and if I enable wordpress search engine friendly url features, it runs into 404 error. I searched Godaddy Knowledge Base (FAQ centre). It says:
Mod_rewrite is an Apache web server module installed on all of our Linux servers by default; it does not have to be installed or enabled. Our Linux hosting accounts support most mod_rewrite functionality.
You do not need to enable mod_rewrite in your httpd.conf, as this is handled at a global level. All you need to do is add the desired code to the body of your .htaccess file.
For more information about mod_rewrite see the Apache Module mod_rewrite documentation.
NOTE:The .htaccess file containing the rewrite rules must be in the same directory as the target files.
This article did not help me. So I had to submit a ticket. Within several hours, I got the reply (I am satisfied with Godaddy support reponse speed) but it only contained the same words as the answer from Godaddy Knowledge Base. I googled “godaddy mod_rewrite” after I could not get a clear reply from Godaddy. I should have googled it earlier because soon I found someone mentioned rewrite rules in .htaccess with Godaddy share hosting DO NOT TAKE IMMEDIATE EFFECT.
This solved all my queries. Although I still do not know how Godaddy hide mod_rewrite from phpinfo, after several hours of being installed, wordpress is working properly.
However, magento is still not running properly. I assume it has nothing to do with mod_rewrite settings. By all means, to my opinion, magento is not suitable to run on a share hosting package. Installing magento on Godaddy share hosting account is only for my curiosity. I have been running magento successfully on my dedicated server.