Hi,

I’m the jack of all trades at my work place.  We have a website which is powered by Expression Engine.  We recently activated a new webcam which we wanted to have a on our website.  Our technical company which installed the camera and our webmaster didn’t seem to communicate too well.  Basically the webmaster gave the tech ftp access to the website, and then the tech changed the default index.html with a html editor and created havoc with the navigation of the website. 

In all the brouhaha, I consulted another web designer who explained what occurred when the tech changed the web database.  The webmaster wants to charge us with the time for the repair.  I think that by giving our tech the ftp access without explanation, he helped to create the problem.  What is the expert’s opinion here?

for starters - index.php is the default home page file EE - so loading a new index.html file will most likely sit next to the index.php. In many hosting setups the HTML file will load before the PHP file - hence making the homepage of your website look like it is broken.

My opinion - rename the index.html file to webcam.html - your website should operate fine.
(*** NOTE If the web cam is uploading images and HTML files then it might try and create the index.html file again - but look in the manual to check this - usually they are just a direct stream or upload images)

When it comes to blame. It goes both ways. But if the people who installed it, asked for FTP access to complete installation (and get the web page working with the webcam) and effectively broke the website - in my eyes they are liable. If they did not know what they were doing or thought there would be complications - they should hold back and not do anything.
In the same vein - giving out your FTP details without care causes these problems - so i would give them a hard kick in the crotch.

Webmaster - charge for fixing it. I can understand this as it will take time for a fault not cause by them. However, i suspect this to be a quick 1 file restoration from backup. So maybe 1-5 minutes work! Minimum charge unless they are being awkward!