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DADDY BOB'S COMPUTER Q & A
December 30,
2007
Q.
Sometimes, when I go to a web site, I get a
big round blue icon with an "i" in it, and a
message that the website cannot be found.
What this all about?
A.
What you are experiencing is something that
Microsoft calls its "Friendly" error 404
message. It looks like this:
In most
other browsers, the default 404 error
message looks something like this:
Should
you wish to turn this "friendly"
message off and return to the older message
you can. Open the Control Panel, click on
Internet Options, the Advanced tab, and
scroll down and uncheck the box in front of
"Show friendly HTTP error messages".
So, what
does this message really mean? This is
explained pretty well in the Friendly
message if you click on More Information. In
case you cannot read it in the picture
above, here's what it says.
This error (HTTP 404 Not Found) means that
Internet Explorer was able to connect to the
website, but the page you wanted was not
found. It's possible that the webpage is
temporarily unavailable. Alternatively, the
website might have changed or removed the
webpage.
It is
possible for the creator of the web site to
insert their own error pages. I have done
just that on my web site. If one were to try
to open a page that doesn't exist on my
daddybob.com site rather than receiving
either of the error messages shown above,
they would get a much (what I believe to be
) friendlier page with instructions as to
what they can do.
To see my
custom error 404 web page, try clicking on
this link to view a page which doesn't
exist. Remember to click BACK to return to
this page.
www.daddybob.com/nopagehere.
There are
other error messages that can be displayed.
The most common are 401 - Unauthorized, 402
- Payment required, 403 - Forbidden, and the
above described 404 - Page not found.
For the complete list, you can look
HERE. |
