A 404 error is generated when someone reaches your site with a bad url.
For example, I just did a spot check on a couple of member site.http://adzclix.com/xx returns Not found!
http://ptcfactory.info/xx returnsNot Found
The requested URL /xx was not found on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Apache/2.2.19 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.19 OpenSSL/0.9.8e-fips-rhel5 mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 mod_fcgid/2.3.6 Server at ptcfactory.info Port 80
In both of these examples, the 404.shtml file is not being used effectively. The 404.sthml may have been installed with your script but it is up to the site owner to add content. Also, the ptcfactory is showing the sever signature. This should be turned off using .htaccess or httpd.conf
Yesterday I was playing around with my corporate site and testing some error handling. Have a look at what I created.http://fjworld.com/xxWith a little effort you can create an error page that can manage errors more professionally. By including a link back to your site the visitor may return or stay a little longer. You can add almost anything to the error page and even make it blend more into your template design so it doesn't look like the visitor dropped off into a blackhole.
I hope this idea can inspired you to modify your own 404.shtml page. You can copy and edit the following code to get yourself started.<html>
<head>
<title> FJ World Inc - Error Encountered </title>
</head>
<body>
<div align="center">
<font color="#FF0000">We are sorry you encountered an error. The following information has been reporterd.</font>
<table cellpadding="3" border="1" width="600">
<tr><!-- Row 1 -->
<td width="150">Referred by:</td><!-- Col 1 -->
<td><!--#echo var="HTTP_REFERER" --></td><!-- Col 2 -->
</tr>
<tr><!-- Row 2 -->
<td width="150">User ip:</td><!-- Col 1 -->
<td><!--#echo var="REMOTE_ADDR" --></td><!-- Col 2 -->
</tr>
<tr><!-- Row 3 -->
<td width="150">Requested url:</td><!-- Col 1 -->
<td><!--#echo var="REQUEST_URI" --></td><!-- Col 2 -->
</tr>
<tr><!-- Row 4 -->
<td width="150">Host:</td><!-- Col 1 -->
<td><a href='http://www.fjworld.com/'><!--#echo var="HTTP_HOST" --></a></td><!-- Col 2 -->
</tr>
<tr><!-- Row 5 -->
<td width="150">User Agent:</td><!-- Col 1 -->
<td><!--#echo var="HTTP_USER_AGENT" --></td><!-- Col 2 -->
</tr>
<tr><!-- Row 6 -->
<td width="150"><b>Error Code</b></td><!-- Col 1 -->
<td><!--#echo var="REDIRECT_STATUS" --> - The requested information is not currently available.</td><!-- Col 2 -->
</tr>
</table>
<!-- Ab Banner Exchange code begin -->
<script language="JavaScript">
document.write('<s'+'cript language="JavaScript" src="http://www.fjstats.com/work.php?n=1&size=1&j=1&c=1&code='+new Date().getTime()+'"></s'+'cript>');
</script>
<NOSCRIPT>
<IFRAME SRC="http://www.fjstats.com/work.php?n=1&size=1&c=1" width=468 height=120 marginwidth=0 marginheight=0 hspace=0 vspace=0 frameborder=0 scrolling="no"></IFRAME>
</NOSCRIPT>
<!-- Ab Banner Exchange code end -->
<font color="#0000FF">Copyright 2011 FJWorld.com All Rights Reserved.</font>
</div>
</body>
</html>
