Customising Error Messages

[gbrandwood]

Dear all

I'm using IIS as my webserver. I know that it allows me to customise error messages. Great - but only if the user has an error on that server (fair enough I suppose ).

Access to the Internet (here) is through a proxy server (sat on our UNIX firewall). I want to give users who fail to connect to a web page, a customised error that gives them some real advice.

Is this possible? Would the error they see be determined by the firewall or the browser software?

Thanks for any ideas.

Regards

Gareth

 

[Rockn]

Unless the web site they are trying to access is under your administration, the error messages are generated by the server the pages sit on. You can of course modify any of you IIS error messages easily.

 

[gbrandwood]

Thanks - I thought it might be something along those lines.

BUT - if I typed in http://www.anaddressthatdoesntexist.com

I get the following error:

"DNS Host lookup failure: www.anaddressthatdoesntexist.com"

Is that generated by the proxy server? Is so, I guess I'll have to get the proxy server manager to let me explore the option of customising error pages on his server.

Regards

Gareth

 

[Rockn]

Most of the errors like 404 or 550 and the like are generated from a web server. All your proxy does is forward packets. There are also some client side errors that are generated from your PC via IE and SHDOCLC.DLL

 

[gbrandwood]

Thanks again, Rockn.

I'll look into SHDOCLC.DLL. I think that is where the IE "Cannot find server" error message comes from. If I could only edit that!

Kind regards

Gareth

 

[TechGuy]

Some advanced proxy software allow you to do this... Specifically, I believe that Novell's proxy software, whose name escapes me, allows for it.

Here's what happens: the client's system asks for the page from the proxy, who asks for the page from the Internet. If it can't be found, instead of allowing the client's system to time out or error, the proxy jumps the gun and returns a page. The client's system doesn't really know there was an error, it's just given a page from the proxy.

 

[gbrandwood]

Hmm - the proxy server / firewall that we are using (Raptor) does that too. I've noticed some errors have generated by "WWW Proxy" on the end.

But, SHDOCLC.DLL is my solution. Using a resource hacker, I can edit the IE5 generated error messages meaning I can achieve my original objective - the error message that I need to edit is in that dll! Fantastic. All I need to do is include the DLL in the drive image for all new PCs. Exisiting PCs, those using ZENworks, can have the update applied automatically!

Thanks for all your help.