fix http 404

Of all the HTTP errors you can expect to find while browsing the Internet, the 404 is by far the most common. It describes a page that can’t be found or delivered by the server, and it can be caused by one of many reasons.

If you’re using somebody else’s website, you can follow a few simple steps to try and fix the 404 error. The first is simply to refresh the page. It makes no sense whatsoever, but sometimes a quick refresh will skip you straight to the content you were looking for.

Failing this, a little common sense should be applied to determine whether the URL is correct. Now, of course, we can’t say for sure what the webmaster intended to a name a page. But if you’re trying to access MyPagr.html, it’s likely that you’ll have a lot more success by manually amending the URL to MyPage.html. Spelling mistakes in links are common and while they can be a pain to troubleshoot for novice users, a little investigation should reveal whether this is the cause of the 404 error.

If you’re still receiving 404 errors galore, you can try hopping up a directory and accessing the page from its natural hierarchy position in the site. For example if you receive an error at:

www.mypages.com/somepages/page.html

Try accessing:

www.mypages.com/somepages/

A lot of the time, this new link will take you to a page where the content is accessible through a newer and working link. Alternatively, you might receive a directory listing by accessing the folder in this way. Scan the contents of the directory and see if there’s a file that matches the one that you’re looking for.

Perhaps even more common than misspellings, you’ll notice that some 404 errors aren’t caused by a typo, but by a change in the file extension. MyPage.html is seen as a completely different location on the web server to MyPage.php. Try to access the content of the HTML file using the PHP extension and you’ll get a 404 error, assuming that there isn’t a PHP page in place on the server already.

In most cases, the content itself hasn’t been deleted. The fact that it can no longer be found and throws up a 404 error is irrelevant. It’s simply been moved to a different point on the website and the hyperlink hasn’t been updated. Updating links can be a chore on a large website, and it’s easy for some URLs to get lost in the mix. You can try accessing the page from a different point on the website, or go back to the homepage and run a search if the website offers it.

You should also pay special attention to the case of the file name. By this, we mean that upper case and lower case can be treated as different letters on some servers. Case sensitivity means that MyPage.php could be seen as different to mypage.php, even though the letters are exactly the same! Be sure that you aren’t skipping over this important functionality of many web servers before giving in to the 404 error.

Get a Free Diagnostic Scan with RegCure PC Optimizer (Download Takes 2 Mins)

No Comments »

The HTTP error 404 is one of the most common that you’ll find while browsing the Internet, and that’s mainly because it’s born out of human error by default. If you or I make a mistake in the way that we present a website to the world, an HTTP error 404 is just one of many ways that a web server will reveal a fault in the page that’s being requested.

By far the most obvious reason for the error 404 is that a web page has been moved or hidden, and is longer accessible at the address where it was once located. There are many reasons why we might want to move a page. We might want to restructure our website, or to rename the files to versions that will perform better in the search engines. Alternatively, we might want to change all the file extensions to produce advanced programming language capabilities. For example, MyPage.html and MyPage.php or two distinctly different web addresses and if you access the .html version when there is only a .php version present, you will normally receive an HTTP error 404.

You will notice when browsing many established websites, the 404 error has been custom coded to suit the design of the site. This is handled by the web server, which outputs a pre-formatted page every time it encountered the typical 404 error feedback. By doing this, brand identifiable companies can gloss over any hidden or deleted pages without throwing the ugly generic error 404 page, which can look quite plain and disenchanting to the average user.

So what is the precise reason for an error 404? It’s important not to confuse the 404 error with other forms of “server not found” problems. The error 404 actually represents that a partial connection with the server was made. It shows that the client (that’s us) was able to connect with the server via HTTP protocol. The problem is that the server either couldn’t find the very specific page that we requested, and is thus unable to return it to the browser, or that the page has been modified with server permissions that make it impossible to return.

If you are a webmaster who suffers from 404 errors across a site regularly, you should work to ensure that all links to old pages are removed from working pages, as these present the chance of being clicked on by a browsing user and the error 404 will almost certainly be returned.

Alternatively, if you are moving a page to a new location, you should be aware that links to the old location may be scattered around the web on other websites. For this reason, you should add a 301 redirect either to a fresh new page renamed to match the old location, or in a .htaccess file which will control via the HTTP any redirections that need to be made, and where they should go.

Manual maintenance of your web pages is vital to weeding out those annoying error 404 messages. If you’re getting these same errors on third party websites, there isn’t much you can do other than go back to Google and search for what you’re looking for again. Google will try to remove all pages that have an error 404 from its index.

Get a Free Online Diagnostic Scan with RegCure PC Optimizer (Download 2 Mins)

No Comments »

A Javascript error can be handled a few different ways. Most of the time, it is up to the web browser you are using to decide how to handle a Javascript error. Although they usually do a good job of handling the Javascript error, none of them do a good job informing the user of the error or help them get past the error. An error can affect a web page from functioning altogether, so deciding how to handle an error smartly should not be something left to the internet browser alone. Using the window.onerror event, you can deal with Javascript errors in a much better manner when users encounter them while using your Javascript programs.The most commonly supported method for handling Javascript errors is the window.onerror event. You can use this event to tell an internet browser how to handle an error should one be encountered. You can tell the internet browser to run a specific section of your program or code in the event of an error. You may decide to have the internet browser ignore the error, or send the user to a error webpage. It will be your choice as to what is best for your webpages. Besides informing you of syntax errors, the window.onerror event is also an excellent way to deal with errors that occur when the internet browser attempts to display a picture.Suppressing the Javascript error is a good idea on web pages that do not rely on Javascript to display and operate correctly. For example, if you are using Javascript to make your links change color and shape when the mouse is placed on them, then it is not necessary to display an annoying error message if this feature is not working. You will just be likely to annoy the webpage visitor causing them to leave your web site. To suppress Javascript errors, just write a function that does nothing and point the internet browser to this code each time an error event occurs. If your webpage needs Javascript to run properly, this is not going to do any good.The easiest way to deal with a Javascript error is to redirect the web site visitor to an error page similar to a 404 error page. This will allow you to display a descriptive error code for the user, or suggest alternate locations on your site that they can find the information they are looking for. You also may have a simpler HTML web site that you would like to redirect the visitor to if they are having trouble with your more interactive Javascript version. No matter what you decide to do, be sure that you thoroughly test your code and error handling functions. To do this, you may want to intentionally make an error in the main part of your Javascript program so that you can test its error handling abilities.

Get a Free Online Diagnostic Scan with RegCure PC Optimizer (Download Takes 2 Mins)

No Comments »

If you receive an HTTP 404 error it means that the web browser was able to connect to the server, but that the server could not find the web page that has been requested or that it was set up to not respond to the request and give no reason why.When communicating with a server using the HTTP protocol, a server must send back a response to any request that it received. If there is an error on finding the web page requested, this response will consist of a numeric error code and a MIME message. These errors can be modified on a web server so that they provide more useful information to the end user. In Internet Explorer, however, these customized error codes will not be displayed to the visitor unless they are more than 512 bytes unless the web browser’s option to show friendly HTTP error messages has been unchecked.The most common cause of an http 404 error is a web page that has been moved or deleted from a server. If it has been moved, a more useful error code would be a 301 moved permanently error. A server can be set up to display this error code by modifying some configuration files. Because these additional settings have to be inputted into a configuration file, most web servers will just stick to the default error codes.There are countless different types of http 404 error messages that can be found all over the internet. Some pages will use the default http 404 error messages but there are also basic versions that include a search box for the server you are connected to. A more graphically appealing version is also sometimes used on larger web sites.

There are a few steps that you will need to take if you want to create your own custom http 404 error messages. First off, you will need to create or modify a file by the name of .htaccess. If you add the line “ErrorDocument 404 /notfound.html” then the web browser will display your notfound.html file each time an http 404 error is encountered.

Now that you have the web server set up to use the notfound.html file each time an http 404 error is encountered, the sky is the limit. You can write you very own web page code in the html file to display pretty much anything that you like when the error is encountered. There are a few things that are recommended, however, such as a link back to your home page, a search box for your website and any other tools to help the visitor find what they are looking for.

Like all things, once you have set the custom http 404 error the way you would like it, be sure to run your web server through a few tests to make sure that it displays your custom error page the way you intended it to.

Get a Free Online Diagnostic Scan with RegCure PC Optimizer (Download Takes 2 Mins)

1 Comment »