Error Message: HTTP 404 - File Not Found

ID: Q248033

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Internet Information Services version 5.0
Microsoft Internet Information Server versions 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0

SYMPTOMS

When requesting a Web page, users may receive one of the following error messages in the Web browser:

HTTP 404 - File Not Found

The page cannot be found

CAUSE

A 404 error message is returned when the Web server cannot retrieve a page that was requested by the browser. This error can be caused by the following:

The requested file has been renamed.

The requested file has been moved to another location and/or deleted.

The requested file is temporarily unavailable due to maintenance, upgrades, or other unknown causes.

The requested file does not exist.

WORKAROUND

Because IIS is unable to provide further information on why the file could not be retrieved, the exact URL cannot be located. A link to the desired file may be obtainable from the default document for the current folder, or from the default document for one or more parent folders.

Example

If the page requested is http://www.microsoft.com/office/1234567.htm and a "404 - File Not Found" error message is returned, try removing the filename from the URL. For this example try requesting http://www.microsoft.com/office. This will probably not return the 1234567.htm file, but may provide a link to the file from the default document. Note that some folders do not have a default document, so a "Directory Listing Denied" message will be returned. Try deleting the folder from the URL to see if the parent folder has a default document with useful information. For this example, if a "Directory Listing Denied" message was returned, try requesting http://www.microsoft.com. If there are several folders included in the URL, keep removing the last folder from the requested URL until a default document is returned.

Additional query words: IIS 5

Keywords : kbWinOS2000
Version : winnt:1.0,2.0,3.0,4.0,5.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbprb