Mime Types 

Mime Types  

Overview 

Mime types tell browsers how to handle specific extensions.  For example, the 

text/html mime type equates to .htm, .html, and .shtml extensions on most 

servers, and this tells your browser to interpret all files with those extensions as 

HTML files. You can alter or add new mime types specifically for your site (note 

that you can not alter the system defined mime type values). MIME types are 

often used to handle new technologies as they appear. When WAP technology 

first appeared no one had these extensions set up on their server. With mime 

types, however, you could have set it up yourself and begun serving WAP pages 

immediately.  

WARNING: Make sure you check the list of pre existing mime types before 

adding new ones. Check with your hosting administrator before adding a mime 

type, as they can easily alter the correct functioning of your web site. 

NOTE: People often get confused as to the difference between mime types and 

Apache handlers. Basically, mime types tell your browser how to handle files, 

while Apache handlers tell the server how to handle files. 

To access the 

Mime Types Menu

, click on the  

  icon above the words 

Mime 

Types

 on the main screen of your cPanel interface.  

To learn more about using the 

Mime Types Menu

, click on one of the topics listed 

below it in the contents window of this manual.  

Adding mime types 

Overview 

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