Error Pages-what Are They And How Do You Create One?

Weve all seen them, youve been browsing a website and you click a link and nothing loads apart from the words Error along with the usual stuff. So what is a Error page? The Error page, basically informs the user that the server cannot find the file they are looking for. However, instead of using the default Error page you can create your own, this is how you do it. First, you need your .htaccess file which should be within your web site directory. If you cannot find it you will need to create one. You will have to contact your host asking them how you would go about creating or editing this file. They may want you to use a text editor and then upload it, or they may want you to use a PICO editor and create or edit the file on the server. How you have access to the .htaccess file lets edit it. Add this line to the .htaccess file: ErrorDocument http://www.yourdomain.com/page.html Make sure this line is kept on online. This is where your Error page is kept. Now youve change the .htaccess file you need to create the page. This is simply a normal HTML document. Once youve created the HTML document, save it and call it page.html. Now the next step is to upload the .htaccess file and the page to the server. Now that is done your next step is to turn it on. This is done by setting the CHMOD attribute to . You can do this via telnet or some FTP programs. If your going to telnet into your server, use the following command: chmod .htaccess Now test to see if its worked. Just go to a page that doesnt exist on your server and you should see your new Error page. If not, then make sure the CHMOD is set correctly, and if that doesnt help, you may want to ask your hosting company for support.