ARCHIVED: At IU, what should I do if people get an error message when they try to view my web page?
On this page:
"404" or "File not found" errors
If you or others receive a "404" or "File not found" error message when trying to view your Indiana University web page, the web browser has not been able to locate the page you are trying to access. Check the URL to make sure it is correct. In particular, consider the following:
- URLs are case sensitive:
Research.html
is different fromRESEARCH.HTML
,research.html
, orresearch.HTML
. - Names of files must match exactly:
research.html
is not the same asresearch.htm
, nor ishome.html
the same ashome.htm
. - Make sure your pages are in your
www
directory or a subdirectory ofwww
. - Do not include the
www
directory in the URL. The following URLs are correct:http://pages.iu.edu/~dvader/sith.html http://www.indiana.edu/~deathstar/contact.html
The following are incorrect:
http://pages.iu.edu/~dvader/www/sith.html http://www.indiana.edu/~deathstar/www/contact.html
The web browser considers
~/www
to be the top directory. Adding an extrawww
to the URL causes the browser to look for a subdirectory of~/www
calledwww
. - Check the link pointing to the page that is returning the errors. Make sure there are double quotes around the page's address, for example:
<a href="foobar.html">
- Make sure the address is in the correct format.
If you use absolute URLs, make sure the entire hostname is included in the address. If you include only the name of the computer, many people, especially those outside of the university, will not be able to view your page. A correct URL looks like this:
<a href="http://pages.iu.edu/~jdoe/foobar.html">
"403" or "Forbidden" errors
If you or others receive "403" or "Forbidden" errors when trying to view your IU web page, the web browser does not have permission to access your page. To change the permissions, follow the appropriate steps below based on where your page is hosted.
Before starting, check the web page's URL to make sure all of your files are where they are supposed to be and have correct names.
Changing file permissions from the command line on Pages
If your web pages are on Pages, use the spinweb command to set the correct permissions. Log into Mercury and, at the Unix prompt, enter:
spinweb
Refresh your browser's view of the page in question to check that the problem is fixed.
You can also enter the Unix chmod
command:
chmod -R 755 ~/www
For more, see Manage file permissions on Unix-like systems
Changing file permissions from the command line on Webserve
If your web pages are on IU's central web server (Webserve), log into your account and enter:
chmod -R 755 ~/www
This command makes the ~/www
directory, including all of the files and subdirectories in ~/www
, accessible by web browsers. On Webserve (www.indiana.edu
, www.iupui.edu
, www.iun.edu
, www.iuk.edu
, and www.iue.edu
), the default name of your web directory is www
, and it is located in your home directory. If the name of your World Wide Web directory is something other than www
, or if your web directory is located anywhere other than your home directory, you will need to replace ~/www
with the appropriate directory name and path.
Note: For security reasons, certain file types should not be made world-readable. For example, Perl or PHP files should be set to be readable for owner only.
Changing file permissions using a graphical interface
If you wish to use a graphical interface, use one capable of using SFTP, such as WinSCP or Cyberduck. For more, see SFTP clients recommended for use at IU
For help on WinSCP, see Changing File Permissions using WinSCP on a PC.
For help with Cyberduck, see Changing File Permissions using Cyberduck on a Mac.
Directory indexing and home page filenames
Directory indexing is disabled by default on IU's web servers. Therefore, your home page must have one of the filenames listed below. For details, see About web page directory indexing
For individual home pages on Mercury/Pages at IU, if your home page is not named one of the following, you will get an error:
home.html home.htm home.shtml index.html index.htm index.shtml
Unless you have a file in the www
directory with one of those names, the following URL will return an error (where username
is your username):
http://pages.iu.edu/~username/
For web accounts on Webserve, if your home page is not named one of the following, you will get an error:
home.html home.htm index.html index.htm index.shtml index.cgi index.php4 index.phtml index.php
Related documents
This is document adho in the Knowledge Base.
Last modified on 2021-09-08 10:21:01.