If you’re having troubles with your custom permalinks within WordPress, I feel your pain, and am here to help.

Most hints and tips point to editing your mod_rewrite module & .htaccess file, which is great providing you’re WordPress Blog is installed on an Apache server.

If your attempts at editing or adding an .htaccess file have failed, there’s a good chance you’re installed on a Zeus server, in which case you will need to use rewrite.script instead.

Create a new/edit a current rewrite.script file to include the following code, and upload it to the root directory of your blog (Not forgetting to back up a previous version first).

RULE_0_START:
# get the document root
map path into SCRATCH:DOCROOT from /
# initialize our variables
set SCRATCH:ORIG_URL = %{URL}
set SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI = %{URL}
# see if theres any queries in our URL
match URL into $ with ^(.*)\?(.*)$
if matched then
set SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI = $1
set SCRATCH:QUERY_STRING = $2
endif
RULE_0_END:
RULE_1_START:
# prepare to search for file, rewrite if its not found
set SCRATCH:REQUEST_FILENAME = %{SCRATCH:DOCROOT}
set SCRATCH:REQUEST_FILENAME . %{SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI}
# check to see if the file requested is an actual file or
# a directory with possibly an index. don’t rewrite if so
look for file at %{SCRATCH:REQUEST_FILENAME}
if not exists then
look for dir at %{SCRATCH:REQUEST_FILENAME}
if not exists then
set URL = /index.php?q=%{SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI}
goto QSA_RULE_START
endif
endif
# if we made it here then its a file or dir and no rewrite
goto END
RULE_1_END:
QSA_RULE_START:
# append the query string if there was one originally
# the same as [QSA,L] for apache
match SCRATCH:ORIG_URL into % with \?(.*)$
if matched then
set URL = %{URL}&%{SCRATCH:QUERY_STRING}
endif
goto END
QSA_RULE_END:

Once uploaded, you will need to navigate to the permalinks settings, within your WordPress admin section, check the custom permalinks option and enter your custom permalink code. I would recommend:

/%category%/%postname%/

Save changes and away you go.

*Note* Even if custom permalinks is already checked, once you upload your rewrite.script file, you will need to click ‘Save Changes’ again.