Code 404 errors

Good day, and thank you in advance for your help.

Let me first say that I've taken over the administration of a Web site
because of an illness in our regular Web person's family. So, please accept
my apologies up front for poor wording or any demonstration of lack of
knowledge...

Here's the problem - According to my Web statistics, our site is
consistently generating 404 errors at the rate of about 50 a day. We don't
get a lot of traffic to begin with, so this is a big deal for us. I'd like
to find out how I can trap the requested URL and the name of the site from
which the referral came. I know that typing errors can and will cause 404's,
but if there's a bad link somewhere, I'd like to fix it somehow.

I'll be happy to provide more information; I just don't know what else to
say. I can create and edit pages and I've learned some scripting recently,
but I'm not educated in this problem.

The site is at www.lra-chicago.org, but be advised - This is an adult site
dealing with alternative lifestyles and practices. If you are uncomfortable
with that subject matter, please don't go there.

Many thanks for any help.


Steve E.

Serious_Practitioner wrote:
> Good day, and thank you in advance for your help.
>
> Let me first say that I've taken over the administration of a Web site
> because of an illness in our regular Web person's family. So, please
> accept my apologies up front for poor wording or any demonstration of
> lack of knowledge...
>
> Here's the problem - According to my Web statistics, our site is
> consistently generating 404 errors at the rate of about 50 a day. We
> don't get a lot of traffic to begin with, so this is a big deal for
> us. I'd like to find out how I can trap the requested URL and the
> name of the site from which the referral came. I know that typing
> errors can and will cause 404's, but if there's a bad link somewhere,
> I'd like to fix it somehow.
>
> I'll be happy to provide more information; I just don't know what
> else to say. I can create and edit pages and I've learned some
> scripting recently, but I'm not educated in this problem.
>
> The site is at www.lra-chicago.org, but be advised - This is an adult
> site dealing with alternative lifestyles and practices. If you are
> uncomfortable with that subject matter, please don't go there.
>
> Many thanks for any help.
>
>
> Steve E.

You could try one of these scripts..
http://php.eljee.com/
http://2much2lose.co.nr/index.php?do=scripts
If you can set them up they email you every time someone gets an error page
and they can send the user to another page....

--
Viper
Are you seeking revenge?
http://www.seekingrevenge.com

Serious_Practitioner wrote:

> which the referral came. I know that typing errors can and will cause
> 404's, but if there's a bad link somewhere, I'd like to fix it
> somehow.

Since you're using Windows, Google up this nice little piece of free
software: Xenu's Link Sleuth

It's simple and straightforward (and did I mention it was freeware?
<g>), and it will check all of your links and give you a very nicely
formatted report on the status of each one.

--
Blinky Linux Registered User 297263
Support the Usenet Improvement Project 2005 (UIP5)
Information: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html

"Viper" <venomx@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:SFd7e.15960$nt3.4922@trndny04...
>
> Also lets not forget he may have no broken links at all. From my error
logs
> I sometimes get errors for no robots.txt and for not having a favicon.ico


....And let's not forget about the hundreds of bots roaming the web
routinely, looking for exploits. My error logs are loaded with formmail.cgi,
owssvr.dll and cltreq.asp, among others. And then there's the incredibly
poorly written bots that manage to mangle paths and filenames into
completely unintelligible URLs while trying to scour a site for nefarious
purposes... My error log is usually about 100kb to 200kb a day, and that's
without a single actual problem on the site.

- TWO

On Wed, 13 Apr 2005, Serious_Practitioner wrote:

> Good day, and thank you in advance for your help.
>
> Let me first say that I've taken over the administration of a Web site
> because of an illness in our regular Web person's family. So, please accept
> my apologies up front for poor wording or any demonstration of lack of
> knowledge...
>
> Here's the problem - According to my Web statistics, our site is
> consistently generating 404 errors at the rate of about 50 a day. We don't
> get a lot of traffic to begin with, so this is a big deal for us. I'd like
> to find out how I can trap the requested URL and the name of the site from
> which the referral came. I know that typing errors can and will cause 404's,
> but if there's a bad link somewhere, I'd like to fix it somehow.

Somebody has already mentioned worms and spammers looking for insecure
systems or formmail scripts. I can vouch for this as the error reports
and accesses by file reports I get at my ISP consistantly lists things
like this ("[ssss]" means "Snipped Several Screenfuls of the Same"):

Accesses by file shows these wormy attempts:

18 /default.ida?XX[snip about 200 'X's]XX%u9090%[snip]%u00=a
8 /scripts/..%%35%63..
4 /scripts/root.exe?
4 /scripts/..À%af..
4 /scripts/..À
4 /scripts/..\..
4 /scripts/..%c1%9c..
4 /scripts/..%c1%1c..
4 /scripts/..%%35c..
4 /scripts/..
4 /msadc/..\..
4 /d/winnt
4 /c/winnt
4 /_vti_bin/..\..
4 /_mem_bin/..\..
4 /MSADC/root.exe?
3 /\x90\x02\xb1[ssss]\x02\xb1\x90\x90[ssss]\x90\x90"

That's 85 bad access attempts there. Add in the error reports (long
lines manually wrapped) showing wannabe spammers looking for exploitable
scripts:

1 [Wed Apr 13 18:03:28 2005] [error] [client 207.248.240.118] script not
found or unable to stat: /csuite/etc/cgi-bin/formmail.pl
1 [Wed Apr 13 18:03:28 2005] [error] [client 207.248.240.118] script
not found or unable to stat: /csuite/etc/cgi-bin/formmail.cgi
1 [Wed Apr 13 18:03:28 2005] [error] [client 207.248.240.118] script
not found or unable to stat: /csuite/etc/cgi-bin/FormMail.pl
1 [Wed Apr 13 18:03:28 2005] [error] [client 207.248.240.118] script
not found or unable to stat: /csuite/etc/cgi-bin/FormMail.cgi

15 other similar instances omitted. Note the variation in the script
names sought, "formmail.pl", "formmail.cgi", "FormMail.pl" and
"FormMail.cgi". I have seen attempts for virtually all 12 versions of
([Ff]orm)?[Mm]ail\.(pl|cgi) in the past.

That makes 104 access attempts for stuff that doesn't exist, just counting
the identifiable worms and spammers and ignoring other reports which could
just really be errors somewhere.


By the way, does it freak out the PTA, "Welcome to the National PTA"
http://www.pta.org/
that they get so many referrals from your site?

>
> I'll be happy to provide more information; I just don't know what else to
> say. I can create and edit pages and I've learned some scripting recently,
> but I'm not educated in this problem.
>
> The site is at www.lra-chicago.org, but be advised - This is an adult site
> dealing with alternative lifestyles and practices. If you are uncomfortable
> with that subject matter, please don't go there.
>
> Many thanks for any help.

Well, I had a quick look out of curiosity (with a text-only browser that
doesn't display images) and could suggest that you add some alt attributes
to some of your images, especially all used as link labels, and, perhaps,
a link in the NOFRAMES section of your page pointing to your navigation
menu instead of the apparent reminder to add it:

http://www.lra-chicago.org/index1.htm

: FRAME: [1] top_banner_new.htm
: FRAME: [2] side_panel2.htm
: FRAME: [3] mainpage
:
: structure with some-HTML-code for no frame version

Your navigation side_panel2.htm as seen with Lynx:

http://www.lra-chicago.org/side_panel2.htm

: [1] [LINK]
: [2] [LINK]
: [3] [LINK]
: [4] Click to expand or collapse
: [5] [LINK]
: [6] [LINK]
: [7] [LINK]
: [8] [LINK]
: [9] [LINK]
: [10] [LINK]

Using the "Click to expand" link gives me more links but is no more
informative:

http://www.lra-chicago.org/side_panel3.htm

: [1] [LINK]
: [2] [LINK]
: [3] [LINK]
: [4] Click to expand or collapse
: [5] [LINK]
: [6] [LINK]
: [7] [LINK]
: [8] [LINK]
: [9] [LINK]
: [10] [LINK]
: [11] [LINK]
: [12] [LINK]
: [13] [LINK]
: [14] [LINK]
: [15] [LINK]
: [16] [LINK]

Where do the links go? You really need some ALT attributes with
appropriate text here. (The name of the image and its size is *not*
appropriate in spite of the many stupid sites with things like
<img src="image003.gif" alt="image003.gif 42971 bytes"> and
<img src="spacer.gif" alt="spacer.gif 48 bytes"> peppered liberally
all over their pages. The alt text should be what you *would have used*
if you didn't have an image in the first place.)


Your calendar is also confusing for visitors with text-only browsers
(the links [sic] browser which partially supports tables may be an
exception]). A link to a preformatted text version might be warranted:

http://www.lra-chicago.org/calendar_1.htm

: Feb 2005
: Sun Mon Tues Wed Thur Fri Sat
: 1 2 3 4
: Open for Paid Members 5
: Open for Paid Members
: 6 7 8 9 10 11
: Open for Paid Members 12
: [1] Open for Fundraiser "For Trina"
: 13 14 15 16 17 18
: Open for Paid Members 19
: Open for Paid Members
: 20 21 22 23 24 25
: Open for Paid Members 26
: Open for Paid Members
: 27 28
:
:
: March 2005
: Sun Mon Tues Wed Thur Fri Sat
: 1 2 3 4
: Open for Paid Members 5
: Open for Paid Members
: 6 7 8 9 10 11
: Open for Paid Members 12
: Open for Paid Members
: 13 14 15 16 17 18
: Open for Paid Members 19
: Open for Paid Members
: 20 21 22 23 24 25
: Open for Paid Members 26
: Open for Paid Members
: 27 28 29 30 31
:
:
: April 2005
: Sun Mon Tues Wed Thur Fri Sat
: 1
: Open for Paid Members 2
: Open for Paid Members
: 3 4 5 6 7 8
: Open for Paid Members 9
: Open for Paid Members
: 10 11 12 13 14 15
: Open for Paid Members 16
: Open for Paid Members
: 17 18 19 20 21 22
: Open for Paid Members 23
: Open for Paid Members
: 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

A good reference to check out:

"Dive Into Accessibility"
http://www.fixingyourwebsite.com/DiveIntoAccessibility/
or http://diveintoaccessibility.org/

For off-line reference, "Download as HTML":
http://diveintoaccessibility.org/dow...ility-html.zip
(a PDF version is also available for download.)

--
">> consider moving away from Front Page...."
">To what? Any suggestions?"
"Naked bungee-jumping. It's less humiliating <g>"
-- Matt Probert in alt.www.webmaster, March 20, 2005