Ask Mike: 404 Errors
Hey Guys,
They’re not as aggravating as the infamous “blue screen of death,” but 404 errors can still ruin a web surfer’s day. I don’t come across as many of ‘em as I used to, but I still thought it might be interesting to learn where the name came from.
I asked the community if there was some sort of significance to the number “404,” and got a slew of great responses. Most folks explained that the number 404 is a kind of code that indicates, to those who bother to learn the code, what exactly the problem might be.
In the case of the 404, the first “4″ indicates a client error. As a community member puts it, “the server is saying that you’ve done something wrong, such as misspell the URL or request a page which is no longer there.” The middle “0″ indicates a general syntax error. According to 404 Research Labs, a site used by several responders, this could indicate a spelling mistake. The last “4″ indicates the specific type of error “within the ‘40x’ group.” As one source puts it, the 404 status message is used “when the server does not wish to reveal exactly why the request has been refused, or when no other response is applicable.”
Long story short, there is a method to the madness. A responder who works in the IT field writes that there are “standards for everything, including error messages.” For example, while a 4xx error indicates a client error, a 5xx message indicates a server error, a 3xx message indicates a redirect, and so forth.
So, there you go, the mystery of the 404 has been solved thanks to you guys. Maybe now I won’t be as annoyed when I come across these errors. But probably not.
Thanks for reading,
“Done something wrong” as in “ask for a question that is no longer there”.
Well… WHERE did I get the LINK, then?
“Done something wrong” is typical Yahoo! speak.
How about this…
When Yahoo! deletes a question, they DELETE it?
Then, we won’t “ask for a question that isn’t there”.
You finally answered question that bugged for the last four months.
“How about the NEXT blog be about the 999 error that Yahoo generates - or perhaps we could have one entitled “Your Report Matter” ;);););)”
ROFL!
I second kr_toronto’s suggestion
Whatever it means it’s a pain in the arse when it pops up.
Not Found = Not Found
Also, I eat broccoli.
Of course, since 1.1 came out they added relevance.
Actually, the inventors of the HTTP protocol did NOT say 40x is a group.
There are hidden requests behind the codes, FTP, SMTP, POP and more. Those codes were saved from them, along time ago it was all TELe communications NETwork and Disk Operating Systems. All through, usually back then it was through one port in small systems, thats why they used protocols, otherwise they might as well called them ports. Nowadays we use protocols on seperate ports and error codes were seperated to different protocols. Leaving a bunch of numbers that didn’t mean a thing to each other in sequence.
Thanks.
By CybX Systems - ASP.NET MVP
A 404 error doesn’t mean, “the server does not wish to reveal exactly why the request has been refused, or […] no other response is applicable.”
“404 Not Found” means exactly what it says. The resource you requested was not found.