RE: IE5 errordocument handling

["Josh Cohen (Exchange)" <jo...@Exchange.Microsoft.com>]

If memory serves, another option to get around this
is to make the Errordocument longer.
If the error repsonse is shorter than a certain
bytecount, IE will show its internal page.
If it is loger, it will show the content.
I cant remember what the exact number is,
but try sending a long document and see
what happens.

Of course, at the time, we chose a number that
would give the user the internal page when the
errordocument was shorter than an amount that
(statistically) was useful.
The unpleasant reality is that most sites
that return short errordocuments are just
returning the standard webserver doc, which
is of little use.
--
Josh Cohen
Program Manager - Microsoft
Wireless Protocol Architecture

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Randy Terbush [mailto:randy@covalent.net]
> Sent: Sunday, August 29, 1999 1:30 PM
> To: Richard Horwood
> Cc: New-Httpd@Apache. Org
> Subject: RE: IE5 errordocument handling
> 
> 
> Thanks. I've forwarded this to our development mailing list.
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: rich@hydra4.trl.oz.au 
> > [mailto:rich@hydra4.trl.oz.au]On Behalf Of
> > Richard Horwood
> > Sent: Thursday, August 26, 1999 6:51 PM
> > To: gavin@libertyone.com.au; andrew@mondial.com.au
> > Cc: apache@apache.org
> > Subject: 
> > 
> > 
> > Lo there.
> > 
> > I've written a small patch for Apache that gets around the 
> > problem with IE5
> > generating its own pages on "404 Not Found" errors (amongst 
> > others).  The
> > problem with this is that is screws up any ErrorDocument 
> > directive you may have
> > defined for your web server.  Instead of actually providing 
> > useful information
> > to customers/users, IE5 totally ignores it and supplies its 
> > own page.
> > 
> > We get around this by fooling IE5 into thinking that a '404 
> > Not Found' is
> > actually a '200 OK', and thus displays the ErrorDocument as 
> > configured by the
> > web server.
> > 
> > Not exactly kosher, but then this *is* Microsoft we're 
> > dealing with :)
> > 
> > If a request is made by a non-IE5 browser, or there is no 
> > ErrorDocument
> > defined for the server, Apache continues as normal.
> > 
> > Enjoy :)
> > 
> > -Rich.
> > 
>