Need Help Please: HTTP Header Errors

[kaboodlegifts]

I hope this is the correct forum: my apologies if not.

I hit a problem that no one has been able to really help with.

I stumbled upon this HTTP header Error when I first ran a couple web site analyzer programs checking for any errors on our site. I tried several different analyzers and/or validators and each one returned basically this same HTTP header.

Our web site is hosted at City Max, and when I questioned them about this error, I was told how to use my meta header tags. duh! But this is NOT something I have done. They stopped at the wall and left me hanging.

Here is a copy:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Connection: close
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:30:36 GMT
Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
Pragma: No-Cache
Expires: Sun, 26 Dec 1999 01:01:01 GMT
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
cache-control: No-Cache, no-store, must-revalidate
------------------------------------------------------------------
1.) What concerns me is the expiration date???

2.) ALSO, why does this show " no store and must revalidate"? ...when our store is open and doing business?

3.) And what is "revalidate"??? I mean, I know what the word means, but what needs to be done and where?

I did receive one reply from many that I had emailed at each of the validators and analyzer sites I used: He told me the error problem is coming from my servers. So is this something I need to hound City Max about?

While in my Google Webmaster Tools account today, I found the exact same erors when I ran a "Fetch as Googlebot" check to show how Googlebot fetched the page. So even Google is seeing this.

Is this anything I should be concerned about? Can this hurt our web site in any way? ie: statistics, craw, indexing, etc?

I am so confused and determined to dye my hair dark brown soon! ;)

.....Kate

[wige]

Ok, looking at these headers, I don't see a particular problem, since the page in question is dynamically generated using ASP. The expires header simply tells the client to store the document in the cache until the expiration date. By setting the date in the past, the client should always request a new version of the document.

Must-revalidate tells the client that it must recheck the server for more current content, rather than relying on what is in the cache. This is important because sometimes the client can be configured to wait a certain period of time after downloading a page before checking if a new version is available.

no-store is a more explicit command, which tells the client not to store the document in the cache at all. This directive was intended mostly for secure documents, to tell clients that the file should not be stored on the hard drive or in any backup system. However, as far as I can tell, this directive tends to be ignored by many clients.

All together though, these directives, along with the two no-cache statements, are intended to tell the client that every time this document is requested, the client should issue a new request to the server, and not rely on the version stored in the cache.

[kaboodlegifts]

Ok, looking at these headers, I don't see a particular problem, since the page in question is dynamically generated using ASP. The expires header simply tells the client to store the document in the cache until the expiration date. By setting the date in the past, the client should always request a new version of the document.

Must-revalidate tells the client that it must recheck the server for more current content, rather than relying on what is in the cache. This is important because sometimes the client can be configured to wait a certain period of time after downloading a page before checking if a new version is available.

no-store is a more explicit command, which tells the client not to store the document in the cache at all. This directive was intended mostly for secure documents, to tell clients that the file should not be stored on the hard drive or in any backup system. However, as far as I can tell, this directive tends to be ignored by many clients.

All together though, these directives, along with the two no-cache statements, are intended to tell the client that every time this document is requested, the client should issue a new request to the server, and not rely on the version stored in the cache.

Thank you so much, wige, for clarifying things!

I was seeing greys sprouting and my stress levels increasing! ...I do that to myself regularly and must learn to relax.

I really do appreciate your time and wisdom, and also making your response simple enough that even 'I' can understand.

Many thanks!!!
....Kate
(taking a chill-pill)

[kaboodlegifts]

Just curious .....One more question please: what is the initial source of these headers? Is it from City Max, or some where else?

Thanks again,
.....Kate

[wige]

The headers are generated by the server software itself, in your case Windows IIS.

[kaboodlegifts]

The headers are generated by the server software itself, in your case Windows IIS.

Thanks again!
....Kate