WordPress 3.0.1 - problem with FTP access and PHP error logging

[Set Square]

I have recently installed WordPress 3.0.1 to a Windows host. My site is live and I can add posts and comments etc.

My main problem is that I'm not able to make any changes from the WP dashboard requiring FTP access - e.g. updating the Akismet plug-in or installing a new theme (I'm using the correct FTP login details): I get a 500 - internal server error.

Does anyone know what the problem might be?

The tech support at my hosting company advised me to create an error logging file and include this code at the start of wp-admin/update php (the file returning the error message):

ini_set('display_errors', 1); ini_set('log_errors', 1); ini_set('error_log', dirname(__FILE__) . '/error_log.txt'); error_reporting(E_ALL);

That hasn't worked - nothing has been written to error_log.txt.

Can anyone advise as to how I should enable PHP error logging - e.g., a suitable file that would be referenced in all tasks, including the wp-admin side of things. If I can determine what the error is, then hopefully my hosting company can help fix it.

Thanks in advance for any help (I should point out that I'm very much an amateur when it comes to coding, so please use small words!)

 

[php.allstar]

Hi,

To show errors in wordpress add the following line to the wp-config.php script:

define('WP_DEBUG', true);

That should help point you in the right direction...

 

[Set Square]

Thanks for the advice - I had forgotten to make that change from the config-sample script. However, it hasn't made a difference!

The only other thing I can think of is to go back to Blacknight and ask them to verify the MySQL settings in config.php