Q: How do I create my own 401 and 404 error pages?

To create your own customized error pages, simply follow the instructions below. We will illustrate how to customize the 404 error message. You can then apply the same steps to customize the 401 error page.

1. You must first create a file named ".htaccess", which must be in your root directory (your main directory, displayed as a forward slash "/"). You can create this file using File Manager 2.0.

2. Edit the ".htaccess" file, and add the following line as the first line in the file, or on a line by itself if you have already added other error messages:

ErrorDocument 404 /error404.html

This configures your Web site to point to the file named "/error404.html" when a 404 error occurs. (A 404 error means "file not found" and will occur when someone mistypes a filename or path, but has correctly typed your domain name.)

3. Create the HTML page that you want to display in the event of a 404 error. Save the file using the name "error404.html", and put it in the root directory of your Web site, just like the .htaccess file. This file is a regular HTML file and can contain whatever you can display on a normal HTML page, so create whatever you want people to see when they get the 404 error. (Note: capitalization matters. Filenames on our Web servers are case-sensitive. Your filename must match your entry in the ".htaccess" file exactly in order to function correctly.)

Other errors, such as the 401 error, work the same way. To create an error page for the 401 error, perform exactly the same steps as outlined above, except add 401 instead of 404. For example, if you have already done the steps above and created the ".htaccess" file with the 404 line in it, then add another line for the 401 error. The file contents with both errors would appear like this:

ErrorDocument 404 /error404.html
ErrorDocument 401 /error401.html

You will then need to create another HTML file named "error401.html" in the root directory to handle your 401 errors. For the curious, a 401 error means "unauthorized access attempt" and can occur in different contexts, such as when someone tries to access your member area without the correct password.