There is often a situation in which the browserinstead of a specific page, it displays an error message 404. People react differently: some do not notice, others get angry, others get frightened. What is 404 not found, which causes this problem? When there is no page that the person wants to see, this message is displayed. Few people know that in honor of 404 not found there are projects on the Internet, whole catalogs, contests are organized. First let's figure out what Error 404 is when it appears. If you look at the technical side, then the browser accesses the server, which sends the code status of the requested page. If the request is processed correctly, this corresponds to the code "200 OK". Users see the requested page of the website. In the event that the request is processed with errors, people see a message with the status 404 not found.
What are the numbers in error 404?
Not everyone knows that the first figure speaks oferror of the client program (browser). It is assumed that the URL does not exist or is typed incorrectly. Zero indicates syntax problems. The last digit is attributed to the 40x version of the error, including, in addition to the 404 not found status, 401 unauthorized and 400 bad request.

There is a funny myth about error 404, according towhich, in the scientific center involved in the development of the World Wide Web, was a room with the same number, located on the fourth floor. At a certain point, the amount of information that was processed exceeded all permissible norms, several scientists could not apply simultaneously to one document. That's when the developers came up with the idea of making an error message informing that the file was not found.
Scientists themselves from the center of CERN deny this.They claim that there was no such room. It's worth noting that you can never encounter error 404 not found. There is another reason for this error. In Russia, an Internet connection is quite common with the help of dial-up (telephone communication). If the connection with the provider is poor, error 404 appears.

What can I do to prevent the 404 page not messagefound did not frighten users, how to avoid this? Are there ways to solve the problem? For owners of web resources it is important that there are no "broken" links. This is easy with a static site, which is no more than 10 pages. If the Internet resource is large, there is a lot of content in it, it is difficult to keep everything under control constantly. Sooner or later, a link to a page that no longer exists. And the user himself can enter an incorrect address. It is important to make a good page reporting error 404. It should not frighten the visitors of the site. On it it is necessary to indicate information about the error itself so that people understand why they are here. You can also place on it a piece of information that the user could search for. For example, an instruction, a form for searching. Make links to interesting articles of your site on it, do not forget about mentioning the address of the main page of the resource. The feedback form is also helpful.

- make this page, name it, for example, "404.htm";
- create a folder in the root, write it in .htaccess;
- put a page about the error;
- write in .htaccess ErrorDocument 404 / error / 404.htm.
All these actions will avoid the message not found on the pages of your site.