BCR - AFL, February 2001 - The Internet Connection

By Michael Sauers
HTTP Error Codes Sometimes Confusing
Whether browsing the Web with Netscape, Internet Explorer, Opera or any other browser, you eventually are going to encounter one of those annoying, three- digit error codes. The most common is "404 - Not Found," but most of you are acquainted with others.

Have you ever wondered what they all mean? Here are the more common error codes encountered (there are a total of 38 error codes) with brief descriptions of what happened to trigger them:

400 Bad Request: The request was ill-formed. Typically this is caused by a hiccup in your browser or the connection. Try again.

401 Unauthorized: You are attempting to access a directory or file that does exist but that requires a user name and password and have entered that information incorrectly. Check the information and try again.

403 Forbidden: You have tried to access a file or directory for which you do not have the appropriate permission. Either the server has incorrect permissions set, or you are just not meant to access that area of the server.

404 Not Found: You have attempted to access a file or directory that does not exist on the server. Check your typing and try again.

405 Method Not Allowed: The server will not accept the transmission method requested by the client. This error is usually related to the sending of information via a Web form. Contact the server administrator.

407 Proxy Authentication Required: You will receive this error when the server believes you have sent a valid request which has not been authenticated by the proxy server.

408 Request Time-Out: The server believes that it is taking too long to fulfill your request and has cut the connection. Try again.

413 Request Entity Too Large: The file you are attempting to send or receive is too large for the server to handle.

414 Request-URL Too Large: The URL is too long for the server to handle. Try shortening the URL and requesting the information a second time.

500 Server Error: The server has encountered a problem that is preventing it from completing your request. Contact the server's administrator.

501 Not Implemented: The browser has made a request of the server to which the server is not equipped to respond.

502 Bad Gateway: Your proxy server (if you have a proxy server) has received a bad response from the remote server.

If you are a Web server administrator and would like to learn how to customize some of these messages to have them make more sense for your site's visitors, check out the URL: support.teleport.com/webweave/errormsgs.phtml.