J
Jo
I keep getting weird 404 errors every month in my web server stats (Awstats).
I can't figure out how to fix them and it's starting to drive me a little
nuts. Since this problem seems to be related to a FrontPage 2003 theme I
created, I'm hoping someone here can help me figure this out. Sorry this post
is so long, but it's is a rather complex problem, and since I'm not sure
where the problem lies, I don't know what to include and what to leave out.
I'll try to explain it as clearly as I can. Please bear with me!
Here's an example, showing a generic not-found filename and directory, then
the number of error hits so far this month, and then the web page supposedly
requesting the not-found file:
/_themes/edwhite/'imagefile.gif'___68___http://www.evolvingdoor.ca/directory/filename.htm
The most frequent 404 errors are for image files I created myself to use in
my own FrontPage 2003 theme (called "edwhite" which is the theme directory in
the example). These most common 404s often show in the stats with single
'quotes' around the filename (although not always). This is weird because
these filenames never appear with quotes anywhere in the View Source code of
the uploaded page.
I also get a lot of 404 errors from the background gif that is used on all
pages (with or without the quotes in the stats). All pages in my site use the
same theme. Yet, I only get 404 errors from a few pages, and which page is
reporting the 404 will change, so it's not like I can nail it down to certain
pages being the problem. Yet, it's never a situation where ALL accesses of a
certain page will produce the error -- only a small fraction of the total
access hits will return the 404 error. So it seems not to be something in the
page's coding, per se.
I've tried re-loading the image files into the FP theme and re-uploading the
whole site several times, but it doesn't seem to change anything. Once I even
tried recreating one of the webpages from scratch, thinking it might be some
weird glitch in the coding, but it didn't solve the problem.
Often the not-found graphics are not even used in the requesting page! In
fact, one of them (a second level bullet gif) is not used anywhere in my
site, although it's implemented as part of my theme in case I want to use it.
So I don't know why the requesting files are returning a 404 error if they're
not using that gif in the page anyway. Very weird.
Another 404 that appears regularly is for a file called 'blank.gif' (with or
without the quotes). The thing is, this file is not in any directory of my
site, either online or offline. So I don't know why a webpage would be
looking for it. I think I might have experimented once with using a spacer
gif many months ago, and I might have called it 'blank.gif' but I don't
remember for sure. And it certainly isn't listed anywhere in my site now,
online or offline. I don't recall ever using it as part of a theme either. So
I don't know why this file keeps coming up in the 404 listings. Again, very
weird.
Sometimes the requesting page seems to be looking for a not-found file in
the same directory as itself, instead of in the theme's directory. These are
usually non-theme image files, most of which were once stored in the same
directory as the calling page. Not all of them though: I'll usually get a few
404s when a page looks for the background gif in its own directory, and that
gif has never resided in that directory. Very weird.
For the images that used to reside in the same directory as the page that
used them: I changed that at least 4-6 months ago when I herded all image
files into a central image directory. You'd think that whoever/whatever is
triggering the 404s would have caught up by now, yet I still get these errors
-- not a lot of them, but enough that I am very puzzled where they're coming
from.
I'm wondering if some of the errors might be due to SE indexing that hasn't
updated (although I'm crawled regularly and frequently by all the main SEs
and a few I've never even heard of). I've wondered if some of the SEs aren't
updating their map of my website but are still referring people to me?
Or, is it possible that these 404 errors are from old bookmarks by
individual users whose browsers just don't update the page when it's accessed
again? It's an awfully high number, if that's the case (e.g., a couple of
hundred errors for the theme gifs per month). I'm reaching for any
explanation at this point!
If it was simply a glitch in the page's coding, I would think the 404 error
would show up every time that page was accessed, but the numbers are just a
fraction of the number of total hits on that page.
So I'm at a loss to explain or fix these 404 errors. I figured they would
level out and disappear after a while, thinking they were fallout from when I
changed my site's theme months ago. But they don't seem to be going away.
I've never noticed a problem with the gifs not showing on the pages when I
look at them online, but maybe they're not showing up on other people's
browsers and I don't even know it...except for these 404 errors. So I don't
want to just shrug this off either.
I'm hoping someone can help me solve this mystery. Thanks in advance for any
help you can give me! And thanks for hanging in to read this long message.
Jo
I can't figure out how to fix them and it's starting to drive me a little
nuts. Since this problem seems to be related to a FrontPage 2003 theme I
created, I'm hoping someone here can help me figure this out. Sorry this post
is so long, but it's is a rather complex problem, and since I'm not sure
where the problem lies, I don't know what to include and what to leave out.
I'll try to explain it as clearly as I can. Please bear with me!
Here's an example, showing a generic not-found filename and directory, then
the number of error hits so far this month, and then the web page supposedly
requesting the not-found file:
/_themes/edwhite/'imagefile.gif'___68___http://www.evolvingdoor.ca/directory/filename.htm
The most frequent 404 errors are for image files I created myself to use in
my own FrontPage 2003 theme (called "edwhite" which is the theme directory in
the example). These most common 404s often show in the stats with single
'quotes' around the filename (although not always). This is weird because
these filenames never appear with quotes anywhere in the View Source code of
the uploaded page.
I also get a lot of 404 errors from the background gif that is used on all
pages (with or without the quotes in the stats). All pages in my site use the
same theme. Yet, I only get 404 errors from a few pages, and which page is
reporting the 404 will change, so it's not like I can nail it down to certain
pages being the problem. Yet, it's never a situation where ALL accesses of a
certain page will produce the error -- only a small fraction of the total
access hits will return the 404 error. So it seems not to be something in the
page's coding, per se.
I've tried re-loading the image files into the FP theme and re-uploading the
whole site several times, but it doesn't seem to change anything. Once I even
tried recreating one of the webpages from scratch, thinking it might be some
weird glitch in the coding, but it didn't solve the problem.
Often the not-found graphics are not even used in the requesting page! In
fact, one of them (a second level bullet gif) is not used anywhere in my
site, although it's implemented as part of my theme in case I want to use it.
So I don't know why the requesting files are returning a 404 error if they're
not using that gif in the page anyway. Very weird.
Another 404 that appears regularly is for a file called 'blank.gif' (with or
without the quotes). The thing is, this file is not in any directory of my
site, either online or offline. So I don't know why a webpage would be
looking for it. I think I might have experimented once with using a spacer
gif many months ago, and I might have called it 'blank.gif' but I don't
remember for sure. And it certainly isn't listed anywhere in my site now,
online or offline. I don't recall ever using it as part of a theme either. So
I don't know why this file keeps coming up in the 404 listings. Again, very
weird.
Sometimes the requesting page seems to be looking for a not-found file in
the same directory as itself, instead of in the theme's directory. These are
usually non-theme image files, most of which were once stored in the same
directory as the calling page. Not all of them though: I'll usually get a few
404s when a page looks for the background gif in its own directory, and that
gif has never resided in that directory. Very weird.
For the images that used to reside in the same directory as the page that
used them: I changed that at least 4-6 months ago when I herded all image
files into a central image directory. You'd think that whoever/whatever is
triggering the 404s would have caught up by now, yet I still get these errors
-- not a lot of them, but enough that I am very puzzled where they're coming
from.
I'm wondering if some of the errors might be due to SE indexing that hasn't
updated (although I'm crawled regularly and frequently by all the main SEs
and a few I've never even heard of). I've wondered if some of the SEs aren't
updating their map of my website but are still referring people to me?
Or, is it possible that these 404 errors are from old bookmarks by
individual users whose browsers just don't update the page when it's accessed
again? It's an awfully high number, if that's the case (e.g., a couple of
hundred errors for the theme gifs per month). I'm reaching for any
explanation at this point!
If it was simply a glitch in the page's coding, I would think the 404 error
would show up every time that page was accessed, but the numbers are just a
fraction of the number of total hits on that page.
So I'm at a loss to explain or fix these 404 errors. I figured they would
level out and disappear after a while, thinking they were fallout from when I
changed my site's theme months ago. But they don't seem to be going away.
I've never noticed a problem with the gifs not showing on the pages when I
look at them online, but maybe they're not showing up on other people's
browsers and I don't even know it...except for these 404 errors. So I don't
want to just shrug this off either.
I'm hoping someone can help me solve this mystery. Thanks in advance for any
help you can give me! And thanks for hanging in to read this long message.
Jo