Alternatives to custom 404 error pages

[AccuraCast]

We asked one of our clients' webmaster to create a customer 404 error page for their site, and he said he couldn't for the following reason:

The site is hosted on a Windows 2003 server and therefore there is no .htaccess file as error redirects are dealt with in the IIS Manager, unfortunately, we are not able to access this part of the OS to make the changes that you request.

Does anyone know of a way around this that I can suggest to them? It is rather important that they have a custom error page since they change their pages very often.

[ADAM Web Design]

Wow...what a pantload.

This is actually one of the easier things to do in IIS 5.0 and beyond (including Server 2003), as long as the webmaster knows what he/she is doing.

Here's a really good ASP Custom 404 article from the guys at 4 Guys From Rolla on how to get started with this. From there, all the guy has to do is open up the properties for the website in IIS, click the Custom Errors tab, and add the 404 page as a URL instead of the default page itself.

"Just go clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick. It's real easy, man."
--Boomhauer (King of the Hill)

[minstrel]

"pantload"... that kills me... :o)

I haven't heard that since primary school... :o)

accuracast, tell your clients to contact their host and have him set the error page for his virtual hosting to whatever filename he wants.

[ChrisRC]

I just want to mention, since the 4guysfromrolla links don't, make sure you set the appropriate response.status. I've noticed both google and msn spidering appearently random pages in what I can only assume is an attempt to get a 404 message. I wonder what thier reaction is to getting a 200 on an obviously bogus page.

[AccuraCast]

Thanks for the quick response and very helpful directions, minstrel, ADAM W D and ChrisRC!

"pantload" indeed!
hahahah!