This chapter of the Server Extensions Resource Kit helps you understand common error messages associated with the FrontPage Server Extensions. It is divided into two sections, NT issues and UNIX issues.
Many of the error messages that are listed in this chapter can occur in many ways. This chapter attempts to identify the most common causes of each error message. In many cases, when FrontPage returns a standard HTML error, the recommended action is to check the error log files of your server. These log files will often have enough detailed information to identify the problem.
NTLM authentication failed
NTLM authentication failed, because you are connecting to the server via a proxy server...
IIS - Can open web without Username/Password prompt
IIS – Cannot open web, Username/Password prompt continually displayed.
Server error: Web Server busy. Please try again.
There is no server on Port 80 at ‘server_name’.
Netscape – Can open web without Username/Password prompt
Are there any considerations when FTPing to my FrontPage web?
Server error: Cannot open file "usr/local/directory_name/service.lck" for writing.
Server error: Cannot open file "usr/local/directory_name/config/magnus.lck" for writing.
Netscape – Web opens without username/password prompt
Apache - Can open web without username/password
The server could not complete your request. For more information on the message from the server, click Details.
Cannot open file "/usr/local/frontpage/we80.cnf" for reading.
Server Error The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration
The server "server_name" timed out.
Cannot add task named task_name to the task list on the server.
Server error: Cannot open file "document_root_path/_vti_pvt/service.pwd"
HTTP 403 Error
HTTP 404 Error
HTTP 500 Error
HTTP 501 Error
HTTP 502 Error
Using FTP instead of Publish FrontPage Web
I am running FreeBSD on my server and am running into problems.
IIS – Unknown Server "MSIIS", or IIS is not listed in Server type dropdown box
This error message may be caused by a missing or out of date file:c:\Program Files\Microsoft FrontPage\version3.0\servsupp\fp30msft.dll
Check for the presence and date of this file. Reinstall the FrontPage Server Extensions from the FrontPage 98 CD-ROM if the date is older than the other DLLs in the ../version3.0/servsupp directory.
Outside of your LAN, your users will need to specify the name of the domain along with their user names, as in mydomain\myuserame. This will indicate that the Web server should use the account on the Primary Domain Controller (PDC) instead of looking for a local account.
If NTLM is enabled and you are attempting to access a FrontPage web through a proxy server or firewall, you will be unable to access the web. To gain access, the Password Authentication setting should be set to Basic (Clear Text) in the Internet Service Manager. If some users who are accessing the web require NTLM and are not using a proxy server, select NTLM in addition to Basic authentication. FrontPage will attempt to connect using NTLM authentication and then degrade to using Basic authentication when necessary.
IIS - Can open web without Username/Password prompt
If a FrontPage Web can be accessed without being prompted for a username and password, consider the following:
- If you are using NT Challenge/Response and are already logged into your machine as an administrator, FrontPage will automatically use your same password. To troubleshoot if this is the case, try to open a FrontPage Web from a client PC. You should now be prompted with the username/password dialog box.
- The IUSR_Machine_Name or INTERACTIVE account may have been given rx permission to the _vti_bin/_vti_aut directory. If you have applied this high a level of permissions to the subdirectories of _vti_bin, FrontPage Explorer will never prompt you to identify yourself when you log on, and the logon account will be regarded as the Internet guest. If this is the case, remove permissions for all but the author and administrator groups.
- If you are running on a FAT file system, you will not be able to limit access to your FrontPage web. Anyone using the FrontPage client will be able to access your web. You need to re-install IIS on an NTLM partition.
IIS – Cannot open web, Username/Password prompt continually displayed.
This error message can be caused by one of the following:
- You are using an incorrect username/password combination
- There is a file/directory permissions problem. If this is a file/directory permissions problem, perhaps the account doesn't have rx permission to the _vti_aut or _vti_adm directory (depending on whether you are prompted for authoring permissions or administrator permissions).
- If this is a new NT user account, make sure that in the User Properties of the NT User Manager, the "User Must Change Password at Next Logon" option is not checked.
Server error: Web Server busy. Please try again.
The user account does not have rwxd permission to the _vti_pvt directory of the corresponding web; specifically, the user doesn't have access to the Service.lck file
There is no server on Port 80 at ‘server_name’.
This error message indicates that the Web server at this site is not running.
Netscape – Can open web without Username/Password prompt
For the Netscape server, this error message is usually caused by access control not being set correctly. In the Netscape Server Administrator, configure per-directory configuration files (for access control) according to the parameters listed below:
- Infer base directory from URL
- File name = ".nsconfig"
- Search subdirectories for configuration files
If you receive an http error message with a status code, it is important to note that the codes are industry standards and are specified in the HTML 3.2 specification. 400 series messages indicate that the problem originates on the client while 500 series messages indicate that the problem originates on the server.
500 - Server Error This server has encountered an internal error which prevents it from fulfilling your request. The most likely cause is a misconfiguration. Please ask the administrator to look for messages in the server's error log.
Possible corrections:
- Convert the default server to a virtual server in the Internet Service Manager. You can determine if the server is virtual in the FrontPage Server Administrator. If the default server shows just the port numbers (80 and 443) and not the TCP/IP address, it is not virtual.
To correct this problem, uninstall the Server Extensions from the default server only. Next run IIS Internet Service Manager and, under the Directories tab, select the directory for the default service. Select Edit Properties, mark the Virtual Server box, supply the proper TCP/IP address and click Apply. Next, stop and restart your server and reinstall the FrontPage Server Extensions on the new virtual server.
- Also see: http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q143/0/97.htm
501 - HTTP/1.0 501 Not Supported
This error message indicates that the target server does not have the FrontPage Server Extensions installed. On the server, use the FrontPage Server Administrator to install the Server Extensions.
This error can also occur when attempting to run a CGI script. If this is the case, the 501 error will be Unsupported. Make sure that the CGI-bin directory is marked as Executable in the FrontPage Explorer’s Directory Properties dialog box.
Server error: Cannot open file
"usr/local/directory_name/service.lck" for writing.
Server error: Cannot open file
"usr/local/directory_name/config/magnus.lck" for writing.
During installation of the Server Extensions, FrontPage attempts to create a zero byte lock file (.lck) in the named directory so that no changes can be made by other users or programs on the system. When the installation program cannot open this file, it is usually because the lock file has not been successfully created. This can happen because the permissions for the directory prevent the installation program from writing to that directory. For a listing of the correct permissions for this directory, see Files and Permissions for UNIX Web Servers.
Netscape – Web opens without username/password prompt
On a Netscape server, this error message usually indicates that access control is not set correctly. In the Netscape Server Administrator, configure per-directory configuration files (for access control) according to the parameters listed below:
- Infer base directory from URL
- File name = ".nsconfig"
- Search subdirectories for configuration files
Apache – Web opens without username/password prompt
This error message is usually caused by setting the AllowOverride directive to None in the access.conf file. Setting this parameter to All will alleviate this problem.
The following messages may accompany the above error message in the Detail section.
msg=Cannot open file "/usr/local/frontpage/we80.cnf" for reading.
osmsg=Permission deniedThe we80.cnf file (or domain_name:port_number.cnf) is a configuration file that is created by FrontPage during the installation of the FrontPage Server Extensions. Check the permissions assigned to this file and make sure they match those listed in Files and Permissions for UNIX Web Servers.
msg=Cannot open file "/usr/local/frontpage/we80.cnf" for reading.
osmsg=No such file or directory.If the file we80.cnf, (or domain_name:port_number.cnf) does not exist in the "/usr/local/frontpage" directory, re-install the FrontPage Server Extensions for the domain in question.
Server Error The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. Please contact the server administrator, admin@my_isp.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.
For the error messages listed above, check the error log file of the Web server. The following error message may be found there:
Access to /content_directory/_vti_bin/shtml.exe failed for hostname, reason: Premature end of script headers
This error message indicates that although the FrontPage Server Extension file, shtml.exe was found on the server, it did not contain the expected code. This can be caused by having the stub executable file incorrectly installed in the /usr/local/frontpage/version3.0/exes directory instead of the actual CGI file. Since the size of the actual CGI files are approximately 2M, make sure that:
- The CGI files are of the correct size in the ../version3.0/exes directory.
- The stub executable in the content directory points to the correct location of the CGI files. Running the "strings" function will display the text code in the stub executable.
The server "server_name" timed out. The current request did not complete successfully.
This error message usually indicates that you should increase the timeout parameter in the server’s configuration file.
Cannot add task named task_name to the task list on the server.
This error message usually indicates that FrontPage does not have sufficient privileges to write to document_root /_vti_pvt directory.
You may use the Check option in the fpsrvadm.exe file for a fuller diagnosis of the problem. Also, for a complete file permissions listing, see Files and Permissions for UNIX Web Servers.
Server error: Cannot open file "document_root_path/_vti_pvt/service.pwd"
This error may be encountered when attempting to add/modify permissions for an open web. Check the file permissions for this file and make sure that the owner has RW access, and that the FrontPage CGI programs (shtml.exe, admin.exe, author.exe) are SUID’ed and owned by the same UNIX owner. The default permissions for this file are 644. See Files and Permissions for UNIX Web Servers for a complete listing of file permissions.
Netscape – Cannot restrict browse access
Netscape maintains end-user databases as an optional feature. Even if you create a database of registered end users as per instructions from Netscape, using a FrontPage Registration form handler is not supported on these servers, because Netscape servers will incorrectly give registered end users authoring access to the web.
If you receive an http error message with a status code, it is important to note that the codes are industry standards and are specified in the HTML 3.2 specification. 400 series messages indicate that the problem originates on the client while 500 series messages indicate that the problem originates on the server.
403 – Forbidden
This error message indicates that you do not have permissions to access this directory. This message can also occur when browsing to a site that does not contain a home page.
404 – The proxy server has encountered an error (Host was not found).
This error message indicates that the requested URL cannot be located by your Domain Name Service (DNS). Try to access the URL from your browser to confirm that the site is up and running. If you connect successfully, try connecting from the FrontPage Explorer again. If you still receive a 404 error, this probably indicates that the server does not have the FrontPage Server Extensions installed.
500 - Server Error This server has encountered an internal error which prevents it from fulfilling your request. The most likely cause is a misconfiguration. Please ask the administrator to look for messages in the server's error log.
This error message may be caused in many ways. The FrontPage client cannot diagnose the problem beyond the information that the server has sent. To investigate further, check the Web server’s error logs. Frequently this error message indicates permissions issues, timeout problems or that the server is running out of disk space.
501 - HTTP/1.0 501 Not Supported
This error message indicates that the target server does not have the FrontPage Server Extensions installed. On the server, use the FrontPage Server Administrator to install the Server Extensions.
502 - An error occurred in the web server that made it impossible for the FrontPage Server Extensions to process this request. (HTTP Error 502)
This error message indicates that the Web Server, while acting as a gateway or proxy, received an invalid response from the upstream server it accessed in attempting to fulfill the request. This is usually caused by permissions problems. Check the server’s error logs for detailed information.
When using FTP to transfer FrontPage Web files to the server, which files should not be transferred?
FrontPage’s Publish command utilizes HTTP to communicate with the web server. The command will not transfer the local FrontPage Server Extension files to the target server. When using an FTP application, it is important to transfer only the content files from the originating web server. Do not FTP any _vti _* directories. If these directories or files are transferred, they will overwrite the existing files on the target server. FrontPage Server Extensions should only be installed using the FrontPage Server Administrator utility on the host server or remotely using the HTML Administration Forms.
I am running FreeBSD on my server and am running into problems.
FrontPage has Server Extensions support for the BSDi operating system, however we do not officially support FreeBSD. The server extensions on FreeBSD have not undergone extensive testing at Microsoft therefore we cannot provide assistance regarding these issues.