To be clear, the error indicates that while the server itself is reachable, the specific page showing the error is not. 404 Not Found error messages are frequently customized by individual websites. So, keep in mind that the error might show up in just about any way imaginable depending on what website it’s shown from.
How You Might See the 404 Error
Here are some common ways in which you might see the HTTP 404 error displayed:
404 Error404 Not FoundError 404The requested URL [URL] was not found on this serverHTTP 404Error 404 Not Found404 File or Directory Not FoundHTTP 404 Not Found404 Page Not FoundError 404. The page you’re looking for can’t be found.
These error messages can appear in any browser or any operating system. Most display inside the browser window just as web pages do. In Internet Explorer, the message The webpage cannot be found usually indicates an HTTP 404 error but a 400 Bad Request error is another possibility. You can check to see which error IE is referring to by checking for either 404 or 400 in the title bar. 404 errors received when opening links via Microsoft Office applications generate a The Internet site reports that the item you requested could not be found (HTTP/1.0 404) message inside the MS Office program. When Windows Update produces one, it appears as a code 0x80244019 or as the message WU_E_PT_HTTP_STATUS_NOT_FOUND.
Cause of HTTP 404 Errors
Technically, an Error 404 is a client-side error, implying that it’s your mistake, either because you typed the URL incorrectly or the page has been moved or removed from the website and you should have known. Another possibility is if a website has moved a page or resource but did so without redirecting the old URL to the new one. When that happens, you’ll receive a 404 error instead of being automatically routed to the new page.
How to Fix the 404 Not Found Error
Errors Similar to Error 404
Some other client-side error messages related to the 404 Not Found error include 400 Bad Request, 401 Unauthorized, 403 Forbidden, and 408 Request Timeout. The 404 Not Found error might appear for several reasons even though no real issue exists, so sometimes a simple refresh will often load the page you were looking for. For example, if www.web.com/a/b/c.htm gave you the 404 Not Found error, move up to www.web.com/a/b/. If you get nothing here (or an error), move up to www.web.com/a/. This should lead you toward what you’re looking for or at least confirm that it’s no longer available. If you do find the page you were after, update your bookmark or favorite to avoid the HTTP 404 error in the future. You might also consider clearing your browser’s cookies or at least the one(s) involved with the website in question if clearing the cache didn’t work. 404s on an entire website isn’t particularly common unless your ISP or government filters/censors websites. No matter the reason, if it does happen, giving another set of DNS servers a try is a good step to take. See our Free and Public DNS Servers List for some alternatives and instructions on doing this. Several server-side HTTP status codes also exist, like the popular 500 Internal Server Error. You can see all of them in our HTTP Status Code Errors list.
