Common website errors and their meaning

Trying to figure out the different types of errors while browsing? This might help.

By GizBot Bureau

| Published: Tuesday, June 5, 2018, 15:54 [IST]

The internet gives us access to a variety of information, all this news and data is available through websites and accessing them is most often a piece of cake, all you need to do is perform a search on Google or just type in the URL, but sometimes you cannot access them because of errors that might pop up. Every time you come across an error page on the website, an HTTP status code in a three-digit format is sent by the web server.

The 1XX, 2XX and 3XX classes do not result in an HTML error page as the client knows what to do in these cases and performs the task without any hesitation. The errors that show up when we try to access the page is usually the 4XX and 5XX kind, the former representing client-side errors and the latter problems on the server side.

HTTP error 404 (not found)

This happens when the page that you wish to go to doesn't exist. It usually happens when you click on a broken link or a website moves a page without taking the necessary steps to redirect it. But this error can also occur if you type the URL wrong.

The first thing that you need to do when you see a 404 is to make sure that you entered the right address. You can also perform a search on Google in order to find the right page. These can be resolved if the website owner puts in redirects on web pages that they change the URLs for.

HTTP error 401 (unauthorized)

A 401 error occurs when you need authentication in order to access a page and you don't have it. This error usually occurs when you try to access content in a website without logging in. Quite often, certain content is only available for people only if you log into a website.

If you face this, you can just go back to the main page of the site and log in again.

HTTP error 403 (forbidden)

This happens when the request you made is valid and the server won't let you complete the request because you aren't allowed to access that particular content.

A 401 does not authenticate you because you haven't logged into a site yet whereas, in the case of a 403 error, it will not allow you to access the page even if you have logged in. This usually means that the content that you have stumbled upon is private and you need to access the website administrator to get to it.

HTTP error 504 (gateway timeout)

This is a gateway timeout, this happens when a server that the website is relying on does not communicate with it fast enough. You will not be able to access the website when this error occurs until the administrators manage to resolve this issue. You will have to be patient and wait until the administrators have resolved the issue in order to access the website again.

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HTTP error 500 (internal server error)

When a server is overloaded or unable to handle requests properly, or if the website coding contains an error, the message that pops up is that there is an internal server error. You can investigate the error log in order to identify the file that is causing the issue.