Forcing index.php (WAS: Issues Removing index.php)

[eluser]Jonathan Ledbetter[/eluser]
EDIT: Thanks to bastones, I have figured out how to force index.php into my CI install. I still would like to eventually remove it completely, however, so if you have a thought, by all means post.

Hello fellow CodeIgniters,

Jonathan here, and I've used CodeIgniter for a couple of projects at my job, so I figure that it would make an excellent framework for my personal site. I'm brand-new to the forums.

I've successfully removed "index.php" when setting up other CI installs, but I'm having some trouble removing it on my personal site this time. I've been through the forums and the user guide a few times, and even though I think I'm doing it right, for some reason I still cannot remove "index.php" from my URLs. Example: visit here vs. here.

My hosting company is HostMonster, if that makes a difference. I don't know much about .htaccess files, but here's mine:

Code:

# Use PHP5CGI as default
AddHandler fcgid-script .php

# Make index.php the directory index page
DirectoryIndex index.php

# CodeIgniter drop of "index.php"
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond $1 !^(index\.php|assets|user_guide|robots\.txt)
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]

# Block directory listings
Options -Indexes

One thing I know is that commenting/uncommenting DirectoryIndex makes no difference.

My /application/config/config.php file (showing the only things I've changed):

Code:

$config['base_url'] = "http://www.jandbledbetter.com/";
$config['index_page'] = "";
$config['uri_protocol'] = 'REQUEST_URI';

Also, if it makes any difference, I've moved my /application/ folder out of the /system/ folder so that /application/ and /system/ are on the same level.

This index.php thing is my main problem. I get a "No input file specified" message in other PHP files I have that use query strings, but that's because I need to convert those files to using CI's format, not a big deal.

Any help would be much appreciated.