Server Responding With 200 Ok or 302 Found instead of 404

charonn0 · **Joined:** Wed Aug 29, 2007 7:52 am **Posts:** 27

McAfee Site Advisor tells me that my site responds to non-existent files with HTTP 200, and my own packet analysis shows the response to be 302 Found, redirected to my custom 404 page.

How can I configure my site to have a custom 404 page without the server responding with a 200 or 302 response?

Burton · **Joined:** Fri Mar 24, 2006 7:21 pm **Posts:** 842

Here is a complete tutorial on how you will be able to create and set a custom 404 Error Page for your site hosted with us.

Please, create a custom .htaccess file using your account File Manager/Create New File/Folder option. If you have an .htaccess file in your site structure pleaase add the following line to your .htaccess file:

ErrorDocument 404 /error404.php

.. and make sure your index.php returns 404 (as above). Also, DO NOT use static html pages for this -- you can't change the result code on a static html page.

If you find the following in your .htaccess file, remove it -- it's redirecting errors to your entry page:

ErrorDocument 404 /index.php

Again: DO NOT USE THIS LINE.
Adding result code 404 to a PHP page

Use this in PHP pages:

<?php
header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
?>

for more info: gsitecrawler.com/articles/error-404-200.asp

charonn0 · **Joined:** Wed Aug 29, 2007 7:52 am **Posts:** 27

Thanks, I'll look at this in the morning after the coffee kicks in :-P

charonn0 · **Joined:** Wed Aug 29, 2007 7:52 am **Posts:** 27

Still not working.

Here is my .htaccess file:

Code:

ErrorDocument 404 /errors/404.php

The page /errors/404.php contains this at the top before the DTD declaration of the HTML:

Code:

<?php
   header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
?>

as suggested in the article you referenced.

A few things I've noticed:

If I specify an error document in the CPanel, then 404 errors get sent to that document, as expected, but send 302 responses instead of 404 to the client. If I do not specify an error page in CPanel but use a .htaccess file instead then all 404 errors go to https://cp.freehostia.com/404/ with a 302 response.

It seems as though Freehostia isn't honoring the .htaccess file directives.

When I directly request the /errors/404.php file (rather than enter an erroneous URL) then everything works the way I want it to. The server responds with a 404 header and the custom error page is displayed in the browser.

Packet capture, direct request to /errors/404.php:
Query:

Code:

No.     Time        Source                Destination           Protocol Info
      9 0.129165    192.168.1.149         66.40.52.73           HTTP     GET /errors/404.php HTTP/1.1 
   Hypertext Transfer Protocol
    GET /errors/404.php HTTP/1.1\r\n
        [Expert Info (Chat/Sequence): GET /errors/404.php HTTP/1.1\r\n]
        Request Method: GET
        Request URI: /errors/404.php
        Request Version: HTTP/1.1
    Host: www.boredomsoft.org\r\n

Response:

Code:

No.     Time        Source                Destination           Protocol Info
     11 0.279743    66.40.52.73           192.168.1.149         HTTP     HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found  (text/html)

   Hypertext Transfer Protocol
    HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found\r\n
        [Expert Info (Chat/Sequence): HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found\r\n]
        Request Version: HTTP/1.1
        Response Code: 404
   Line-based text data: text/html
    <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">\n
    <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">\n
    <head>\n
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />\n
    <title>404</title>\n
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="errors.css" type="text/css" />\n
    </head>\n
    <body bgcolor="#64748B">\n
    </head>\n
    \n
    <body>\n
    <p>&nbsp;</p>\n
    <p>&nbsp;</p>\n
    <p>&nbsp;</p>\n
    <p>&nbsp;</p>\n
    <table width="918" border="0" align="center">\n
      <tr>\n
        <td width="156" rowspan="4" class="bodyText"><img src="exclaimation.gif" width="151" height="151" /></td>\n
        <td class="bodyText"><span class="style5">HTTP Error 404: Inept or ham-handed user </span></td>\n
      </tr>\n
      <tr>\n
        <td width="903" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" class="bodyText"><ol>\n
            <strong>Emptiness</strong>:\n
    [truncated]         <li>The state of being empty; absence of contents; void space; vacuum; as, the emptiness of a vessel; emptiness of the stomach.</li><li>Want of solidity or substance; unsatisfactoriness; inability to satisfy desire; vac
            <li><strong>Want of knowledge; lack of sense; vacuity of mind</strong>.</li>\n
        </ol></p>    </td>\n
      </tr>\n
      <tr>\n
        <td bgcolor="#FFFFFF" class="style5"><div align="center">the page you asked for does not exist in our space-time continuum </div></td>\n
      </tr>\n
      <tr>\n
        <td bgcolor="#999999"><p><a href="javascript:history.go(-1)">Go back</a>, thee, from whence thou came. And darken not this URL again. For if thou dost not heed my words, then thou dost have the brain of birds. Amen </p>    </td>\n
      </tr>\n
    </table>\n
    <p align="center"><a href="http://www.boredomsoft.org">Go To Main Page </a></p>\n
    </body>\n
    </html>\n

Packet capture, requesting erroneous URL:
Query:

Code:

No.     Time        Source                Destination           Protocol Info
     20 5.876681    192.168.1.149         66.40.52.73           HTTP     GET /;fjdngskdjfng;lskdjfnglskdjfglskdjfgksjdfgn HTTP/1.1 
   Hypertext Transfer Protocol
    GET /;fjdngskdjfng;lskdjfnglskdjfglskdjfgksjdfgn HTTP/1.1\r\n
        [Expert Info (Chat/Sequence): GET /;fjdngskdjfng;lskdjfnglskdjfglskdjfgksjdfgn HTTP/1.1\r\n]
        Request Method: GET
        Request URI: /;fjdngskdjfng;lskdjfnglskdjfglskdjfgksjdfgn
        Request Version: HTTP/1.1
    Host: www.boredomsoft.org\r\n

Response with no error document specified in CPanel:

Code:

No.     Time        Source                Destination           Protocol Info
     22 5.905480    66.40.52.73           192.168.1.149         HTTP     HTTP/1.1 302 Found HTTP/1.1 302 Found  (text/html)
   Hypertext Transfer Protocol
    HTTP/1.1 302 Found\r\n
        [Expert Info (Chat/Sequence): HTTP/1.1 302 Found\r\n]
        Request Version: HTTP/1.1
        Response Code: 302
   Hypertext Transfer Protocol
    HTTP/1.1 302 Found\r\n
        [Expert Info (Chat/Sequence): HTTP/1.1 302 Found\r\n]
        Request Version: HTTP/1.1
        Response Code: 302
        HTTP chunked response
Line-based text data: text/html
    <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">\n
    <HTML><HEAD>\n
    <TITLE>302 Found</TITLE>\n
    </HEAD><BODY>\n
    <H1>Found</H1>\n
    The document has moved <A HREF="https://cp.freehostia.com/404/">here</A>.<P>\n
    <P>Additionally, a 302 Found\n
    error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.\n
    <HR>\n
    <ADDRESS>Apache/1.3.33 Server at boredomsoft.org Port 80</ADDRESS>\n
    </BODY></HTML>\n

Response with /errors/404.php specified in CPanel:

Code:

No.     Time        Source                Destination           Protocol Info
    187 1.444362    66.40.52.73           192.168.1.149         HTTP     HTTP/1.1 302 Found HTTP/1.1 302 Found  (text/html)
   Hypertext Transfer Protocol
    HTTP/1.1 302 Found\r\n
        [Expert Info (Chat/Sequence): HTTP/1.1 302 Found\r\n]
        Request Version: HTTP/1.1
        Response Code: 302
        Location: /errors/404.php\r\n
    Hypertext Transfer Protocol
    HTTP/1.1 302 Found\r\n
        [Expert Info (Chat/Sequence): HTTP/1.1 302 Found\r\n]
        Request Version: HTTP/1.1
        Response Code: 302
        HTTP chunked response
Line-based text data: text/html
    <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">\n
    <HTML><HEAD>\n
    <TITLE>302 Found</TITLE>\n
    </HEAD><BODY>\n
    <H1>Found</H1>\n
    The document has moved <A HREF="/errors/404.php">here</A>.<P>\n
    <P>Additionally, a 302 Found\n
    error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.\n
    <HR>\n
    <ADDRESS>Apache/1.3.33 Server at boredomsoft.org Port 80</ADDRESS>\n
    </BODY></HTML>\n

Followed by:

Code:

No.     Time        Source                Destination           Protocol Info
    196 1.487887    192.168.1.149         66.40.52.73           HTTP     GET /errors/404.php HTTP/1.1 
   Hypertext Transfer Protocol
    GET /errors/404.php HTTP/1.1\r\n
        [Expert Info (Chat/Sequence): GET /errors/404.php HTTP/1.1\r\n]
        Request Method: GET
        Request URI: /errors/404.php
        Request Version: HTTP/1.1

And then:

Code:

No.     Time        Source                Destination           Protocol Info
    295 2.011939    66.40.52.73           192.168.1.149         HTTP     HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found  (text/html)
Hypertext Transfer Protocol
    HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found\r\n
        [Expert Info (Chat/Sequence): HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found\r\n]
        Request Version: HTTP/1.1
        Response Code: 404
    Line-based text data: text/html
    <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">\n
    <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">\n
    <head>\n
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />\n
    <title>404</title>\n
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="errors.css" type="text/css" />\n
    </head>\n
    <body bgcolor="#64748B">\n
    </head>\n
    \n
    <body>\n
    <p>&nbsp;</p>\n
    <p>&nbsp;</p>\n
    <p>&nbsp;</p>\n
    <p>&nbsp;</p>\n
    <table width="918" border="0" align="center">\n
      <tr>\n
        <td width="156" rowspan="4" class="bodyText"><img src="exclaimation.gif" width="151" height="151" /></td>\n
        <td class="bodyText"><span class="style5">HTTP Error 404: Inept or ham-handed user </span></td>\n
      </tr>\n
      <tr>\n
        <td width="903" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" class="bodyText"><ol>\n
            <strong>Emptiness</strong>:\n
    [truncated]         <li>The state of being empty; absence of contents; void space; vacuum; as, the emptiness of a vessel; emptiness of the stomach.</li><li>Want of solidity or substance; unsatisfactoriness; inability to satisfy desire; vac
            <li><strong>Want of knowledge; lack of sense; vacuity of mind</strong>.</li>\n
        </ol></p>    </td>\n
      </tr>\n
      <tr>\n
        <td bgcolor="#FFFFFF" class="style5"><div align="center">the page you asked for does not exist in our space-time continuum </div></td>\n
      </tr>\n
      <tr>\n
        <td bgcolor="#999999"><p><a href="javascript:history.go(-1)">Go back</a>, thee, from whence thou came. And darken not this URL again. For if thou dost not heed my words, then thou dost have the brain of birds. Amen </p>    </td>\n
      </tr>\n
    </table>\n
    <p align="center"><a href="http://www.boredomsoft.org">Go To Main Page </a></p>\n
    </body>\n
    </html>\n

Conclusions: .htaccess is being ignored. The server looks only to the CPanel setting for an error document. This error document is served along with a 302 header rather than a 404 header. If the error document specified in CPanel contains the PHP code to send a 404 response, this response is sent only AFTER the 302 response is sent, and is therefore useless.

HELP!

vandersur · **Joined:** Sun Feb 13, 2011 2:29 pm **Posts:** 16

This problem still stays:
.htaccess is being ignored. The server looks only to the CPanel setting for an error document. This error document is served along with a 302 header rather than a 404 header.

mideschenes · **Joined:** Mon Aug 01, 2011 1:35 am **Posts:** 1

Same problem here : my .htaccess seems to be ignored and the server looks to the cpanel for the et Error 404 page setting...

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Server Responding With 200 Ok or 302 Found instead of 404