What Do Those Error Codes Mean?

Tue, 08/14/2007 - 1:36pm — Willow Cook

We've all tried to open up a Web page and received an error such as “404 Page Not Found” or “500 Internal Server Error.” For those of us unfamiliar with such conventions, this can be frustrating. Is this a user error or a server error? Should you try again later or call your Internet service provider?

As a general guideline, you can use the first of the three digits in the code to determine what type of error you're receiving. Blogger Ken Coar offers the following on his Web site:

100: Informational. Request received, continuing process.
200: Success. The action was successfully received, understood, and accepted.
300: Redirection. Further action must be taken in order to complete the request.
400: Client Error. The request contains bad syntax or cannot be fulfilled.
500: Server Error. The server failed to fulfill an apparently valid request.

In other words, if you see a number in the 400s, you've likely entered a bad request; if you see something in the 500s, you may be experiencing a server problem.

For immediate specific help, you can always turn to Help with PCs, which offers a directory of HTTP Status codes and their explanations that's pretty easy to follow, even for non-techies.

But if you're seeking comprehension and commiseration, check out Making Light's Cartoons for HTTP Error Codes, which Boingboing recently highlighted:

416 Request Range Not Satisfied