What is the monthly 404 Gazette and what does it mean to me?

As a service to our customers, once a month we send them a list of any error messages we have found in our master log files that reference their domain name(s). We do this on the first full weekend of every month, and there is never any charge for this service.

If, at any time, any of our customers prefer not to receive these emails, they can just drop us a line and we'll be sure to take their name off the list.

A Few Words About Error Messages

Most of the error messages you'll see in a 404 Gazette are of the "file not found" variety, commonly known on the Internet as a 404 because of the error number displayed by web browsers when encountering a missing HTML document. Not every "file not found" error will result in a 404 message being displayed by a browser, for instance in the case of a missing or incorrectly referenced graphic file. In that case, the graphic will not appear on the webpage, but instead display as a "broken" or missing image.

Likewise, not every error message you'll see in a 404 Gazette is a result of an error in your HTML. Sometimes, other web sites might link to a page on your website incorrectly (usually due to a typo). For instance, if you have a webpage saved as ceilingfans.html, and someone tries to link to it by specifying cielingfans.html instead, you'll see the error message. This, along with many other circumstances, can result in "false" error messages.

What should you do about error messages? Well, first of all, you don't have to do anything. If your webpages are displaying the way you intended, you can ignore any and all of the error messages you'll see in a 404 Gazette. However, these error messages might point out missing graphics, html pages, or bad links that you were unaware of, allowing you to repair or review those links in your HTML.

As with any aspect of your web hosting service, if you should have any questions, don't hesitate to drop us a line.

Two Specific Error Messages

You might see a file not found error message indicating "robots.txt" or "test404response957919906.html" (the numbers you see may differ) are missing. These are files searched for by search engines, and as such aren't really "error" messages at all. For more information on what a "robot.txt" file is, or for information on "test404response" errors and custom 404 pages, see the FAQ section of the Hosting for Humans website.

A Brief Word About CGI Errors

So many things can cause a CGI error message that it really is impossible to go into even a small percentage of possible error scenarios. Most of the time, if you have a CGI script or program on your website that isn't working, chances are you know about it. Many error messages can be generated by testing and configuring a newly installed CGI program, in which case (again), you're probably well aware of the situation. As with all of these error messages, if your website is appearing the way you intend it, it is perfectly fine to ignore all of the error messages you see.

Sometimes, however, you can use CGI error messages to spot malfunctioning or broken scripts, and sometimes even unauthorized access attempts—for instance, if you have a password protected area of your website and you see a lot of "incorrect password" or "unknown user" errors relating to those pages, you know someone's been "rattling the doors" to see if they could find a way in. You may want to review your CGI security in those instances.

Please note, this issue is not related to the overall server security, which we are responsible for, and a "hacking" attempt on a CGI or private area of your website would most likely not affect our server in an adverse way. That said, sometimes it is still possible for malicious users to "hack" a CGI script on your webpage and gain access to information that you didn't intend them to have (for instance, any messages in a private area of a BBS or forum script you may have set up). This sort of "hacking," while certainly unpleasant, does not compromise overall server security.

As always, if you have any questions or problems, contact us at support@hostingforhumans.com and we’ll get right back to you.

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