What is an Error 404 and how to fix it?

Have you ever entered a link or click through a website and you happen to come across the very familiar error 404 message? In this article, we are going to cover what is a famous error 404 and what are the usual causes of such error message when surfing through the internet websites.  We will also cover some hint on how to fix the error 404 not found message.

Error 404 or 404 not found error message is a HTTP standard responds code to indicate that you are able to communicate to the server but the page that you are looking for is not found.

404 Error message can appear in any browser and the web site hosting server will typically generate a “404 Not Found” web page when a user attempts to follow a broken or dead link.

Common Cause of Error 404

• The webpage or resource maybe moved and a redirecting was not done from the old URL to the new URL. When that happens, you’ll receive a error 404 instead of being automatically routed to the new page.
• Another reason why error 404 could appear in your web browser is that you have type in the URL wrongly. So technically it’s implying the error is coming from the client side.
• If the error is in the entire website which you are look for, it could be that your ISP or government filters/censors that website

Way to Fix Error 404 not found message.

• Retry or refresh the webpage by clicking the refresh/reload button on your web browser or pressing f5 from your keyboard. To fully refresh the page clearing the cache, you can try Ctrl f5 button form your keyboard. Or you could try retyping the URL again. Error 404 can appear for different reason and sometimes no real issue exist.

 

• Move up one directory at a time, this will help you determine whether the webpage is still available or not. Slowly move up the URL directory at a time to see where does the error stops at.

 

• Check if the URL you have keyed in is the correct URL. Often it could be a typo error that causes the 404 error message to appear.

 

• If you think that the URL given to you is a wrong one or you would like to confirm that the URL given to your is correct, do a search for the company website in a popular search engine such as Google, Yahoo or Bing, You should be able to get the correct URL to the website that you are looking for,

 

• Clear the internet browser’s cache. If you have determined that the website is reachable via other devices such as your mobile phone or tablet and only your PC is unable to reach the page you are looking for, clearing the cache from your web browser might just do the trick

 

• Finally, if all else fails, try contacting the website directly. It could be that the website or webpage is no longer available or have been move. Such cases do happen when either the website promotion is no longer available or they have run out of stock and decide to remove the webpage to prevent over booking.

 

So next time you chance upon a 404 error when looking for a website, you need not have to worry. Just follow the steps and you will be able to determine the cause of the error.