Permalinks with new host

I’ve searched the forums here and with the new host (dreamhost) and so far am just going in circles. I’ve tried a dozen and one different combinations of setting up the htaccess files for this and can’t seem to figure it out. Apologies if this has been discussed a million and one times already, but nothing seems to be working and I really just need a straighforward answer from someone.

Basically, with my old host permalinks were set up as: index.php/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/ and the new host is set up as: /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/.

I’m trying to just create a basic rewrite rule in my htaccess file that redirects people when the click on an old link through Google that has the “index.php” to a url with out. This should be fairly simple htaccess rewrite rule stuff, but for some reason NOTHING is working. It appears that the automatic WP rules are interfering.

My htaccess files is as follows (which could be screwed up at this point since I’ve tried so many variations):


RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}%{REQUEST_URI} !-f
RewriteRule ^.+.php$ /bogusfile
RewriteRule index.php/(.*) /$1 [R=301]

# WP Fix
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/stats/(.*)$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/failed_auth.html$
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php

</IfModule>

# END WordPress

Can someone just tell me very clearly, without pointing me to a tutorial on how to write an htaccess rule, what I need to do to make this happen. I’ve already spent over six hours researching and nothing is working. I’d appreciate any help I could get.

My site is located at: https://www.playswellwithothers.net and you can basically take any entry and add the “index.php” in there and see what happens. Most people come from Google links that have the “index.php” on it, so they are getting either a 404 page or the “No input file specified” page, depending on what I tweak in the htaccess file.