Certainly, it’s a universal experience to come across error pages while navigating the digital landscape. Whether it’s the infamous 404 error indicating a missing page or the frustrating 503 error signifying server unavailability, these moments can be quite vexing.
Interestingly, despite encountering these error pages regularly, many people are not entirely familiar with their significance or how to effectively address them. Therefore, our goal is to demystify these
error messages and provide insights into their meaning and resolution.
What are error pages?
Error pages are generated as a result of specific HTTP status codes, which are concise three-digit codes issued by the server in response to your browser’s request. When you enter a website’s URL into your browser, it sends a request to the server, and the server responds with one of these HTTP status codes.
These status codes are categorized into distinct classes and subclasses, determined by the initial digit of the code, which ranges from 1 to 5. Each class corresponds to different types of server responses, and they can be summarized as follows:
- 1xx: informational responses — the request was received and understood
- 2xx: success — the request was successfully completed
- 3xx: redirection — you have been redirected to another page
- 4xx: client errors — the requested page couldn’t be found or reached
- 5xx: server errors — the server couldn’t complete the request
Common Error Pages
Why is this important?
Client-side Errors
Now, let’s dive into the client-side errors, meaning the 4xx class. They usually appear if a page is not found, or there are authentication issues.
401
This type of error is caused by a lack of authorization credentials, as you are not authorized to access the wanted page. This is the server telling you that you are not authenticated, or you misspelled your username or password.
In order to solve this error, you could try the following:
- Check if you are logged-in
- Clear your site’s cache
- Check your logs for errors
- Try to log in again.
403
In this case, the error appears because you don’t have the necessary permissions to access the wanted page. The 403 response comes after the 401 response — when the user is logged-in, but it is not authorized to access the desired resource.
You could try the following, to maybe get out of this mess:
- Double-check file permissions
- Clear your browser cache
- Reload the page
- Contact your System Administrator.
404
Finally, we’ve come to tackle the most popular of errors — the notorious 404. Simply put, this error means the server couldn’t find the page you requested.
To solve this, you could try:
- Check if you typed the right URL
- Reload the page.
#Server-side Errors
We’ve reached the stage where we point the finger the other way — the server’s way. The 5xx errors are the fault of server providers and/or because of some connectivity issues. Either way, if one of this kind of errors persists, you should contact support. Now, let’s dig deeper into what these errors mean.
500
This error comes as the server encountered a problem, and couldn’t complete your request. The 500 error is a very broad HTTP status code — see it as the server saying that something’s wrong with it, and doesn’t want to further comment.
To solve the 500 error, you could try the following:
- Refresh the page in a few moments
- Check the service status page for updates
502
This type of error means that there might be some network connectivity problems. In this case, you are stuck with a Bad Gateway problem, as one of the upstream servers is not responding properly.
You could try the following, in order to get out of that bad gateway:
- Check the Internet connection on your side
- See if the site you are trying to reach is up by using a ping test.
503
In this case, the service is temporarily unavailable as the site server is not available for usage, because of either a planned or an unplanned event. This may be caused by a temporary overloading or a maintenance issue.
To solve this, how about trying to:
- Reload the page
- Check the service status page for updates.
504
This status code means that there is no response from the server in the allowed time period. This code gives a Gateway Timeout error.
You could try the following:
- Reload the page in a few minutes
- Check the service status page for updates
- Change your DNS Servers.
Errors have always been troublesome, pointing a flaw in your plan, but knowing what they mean can help you to better understand them, and know what the next course of action is. The result will be a site or server won’t be down for too long, and the visitors will continue to have the best experience.