NOVICE KNOWLEDGE FOR NAVIGATING THE WACKY WEB

A Beginner’s Guide to Those Stupid HTTP Error Codes

A tongue-in-cheek guide to deciphering website snafus

Whoops, my ass. Just help me decipher this frigging number. Image from Semrush.com.

We’ve all seen error codes when attempting to access a website. A confused look on our faces typically follows this as we exclaim, “Okay, what the crap.”

WHOOPS! 404.

Thanks, Chrome. This is helpful.

Please stand by while I peruse my book of Internet Penal Codes, using the secret decoder ring I found in a box of Frosted Flakes from 1978.

WHOOPS! 404.

Is that like a 403 error, but just one worse? Is it better than a 405 error? Is 404 the number of laughs I will get from the guy at Best Buy’s Geek Squad when I bring my laptop in to fix this?

I’ve been working in the IT industry for over three decades and have amassed so much knowledge that it would fill half a sticky note. This is because I am writing articles on Medium when I should be paying attention to my job.

Everybody’s got their vice.

But since we all have these browser errors in common, I figured I’d break them down for you in concise, easy-to-understand terms.

The Basics