Unlocking the Mysteries of Browser Error Messages

The Internet is a resilient creature--it survives viruses, worms, hackers, crackers, and even commercialization without breaking a sweat. That's why it's so shocking when you type in a Web address or click a link only to receive the dreaded '404 Not Found' error message from the remote Web server. By all appearances, the site you wanted has ceased to be (see FIGURE 1 for the standard obituary). But don't just give up--the 404 error appears for numerous reasons:

• The page you want may have moved.
• You may have clicked or typed a URL (universal resource locator--in this case, a Web site address) that contains an error.
• Your browser may have failed to connect to the remote Web server at the domain in the URL. This is the most common and easiest 404 to fix: Just press the Backspace key, if necessary, until the URL you want is displayed in your browser's address window, then press Enter.

Hurl the Right URL

If no amount of pounding on the Enter key yields the site you want, all is not lost. Here's the good news: The fact that you're receiving a 404 message means that your Internet connection is good, and that the URL at least points to a domain with a functioning Web server. The bad news is that either the path that follows the domain name is wrong, or you have the wrong domain altogether. A bogus path is the source of the problem in Figure 1. The portion of the URL that describes the domain--www.spanbauer.com--is correct, but the path that follows the domain is not. I probably wanted to type '/index.html' instead of '/index.htm'.

Bad URL paths leading to 404 errors also plague you when you click URLs received in e-mail messages. When the sending e-mail program inserts line breaks into a long address, the receiving e-mail program will often treat the first break it encounters as the end of the URL. The solution is to reassemble the complete URL in your browser's address field by copying and pasting the pieces.

Alternatively, especially if the fractured address is particularly long, copy it into a word processor, delete the line breaks, and then copy and paste the results into your browser. Or see February's Home Office for Steve Bass's solution to broken links in e-mail.

Bad domain names don't always yield 404 errors. Type www.pcworld.net into your browser's address field instead of www.pcworld.com, and your browser will probably tell you the site doesn't exist. That's correct--it doesn't. But if you type www.microsift.com/windowsxp instead of www.microsoft.com/windowsxp ( i instead of o), the Web server at the domain microsift.com kicks into action.

If you're satisfied that the URL you entered is correct and complete, but you still get a 404 error, what next? One solution is to enter just the domain portion of the URL (only through the '.com' or '.org', for example), press Enter to go to the Web site's home page, and then use its search or navigation tools to find the page you were looking for.

But it may be better to use Google's search engine to find the page. In addition to finding related pages, Google has a huge cache of Web sites that allows you to view sites and some of their pages that have been deleted from the original Web server. If clicking on a Google search link yields a 404 or other error, press Backspace, and instead click the small Cached link (if it exists) at the bottom of the search item.

Kill IE's Debug Bugging

If you recently upgraded to Internet Explorer 6 from an earlier version of the browser, you may have encountered an annoying new feature: script debugging. You're surfing along happily when suddenly a dialog box pops up alerting you to a script error in the site visited. Would you like to debug?

Why Microsoft enabled this handy troubleshooting tool for Web site developers in its browser is a mystery to me. Unless you're working the kinks out of a scripted Web site, it serves no purpose other than to slow down your browsing. To exterminate the feature, choose Tools, Internet Options, Advanced, check Disable script debugging, and click OK.

Send your questions and tips to nettips@spanbauer.com. We pay $50 for published items. Click here to view past Internet Tips columns. Scott Spanbauer is a contributing editor for PC World.