File size INCREASE
 

Well, here's the story. I'm trying to create custom error messages for my site, but apparently IE won't show them unless they're over 10K?

Anyone know of a good way to increase file size? I thought about lots of empty tags, but that's a pain in the ass.

MPEDrummer

I don't think I've ever heard of that, but could you add an image to the error page to increase the file size?

what kind of error message? is it something you could do with an image rather than an html page?

the vbulletin could use a cross-posting checker ;-)

Well, easy stuff, like 404, etc, just for stuff that isn't showing up where people think it should be.

I'm not positive on the 10k, but 389bytes is simply ignored...i get the built in IE errors instead.

MPEDrummer

add a giant meta data tag ?

I'm sorry, I haven't messed with this before, but there's no way that there is a minimum filesize of 10k. Where are you getting this information?

My ISP...it say that on the control panel where you can create custom error messages.

A control panel for creating custom error messages? If you had actual access to a server then maybe I could help.

Seriously though, that's the silliest thing I've ever heard of. A 10k minimum? I'm not saying I don't believe you, I'm saying your ISP is really weird.

I'd just add 9k worth of comments --

First do < then !-- then blahblahblahbalh then -->.
Sorry I had to type it like that, vB apparently actually makes those tags into comments and I don't know the escape character.

So uh, that's angle bracket, exclamation, dash, dash, without any spaces. Then comments. Then dash, dash, angle bracket.

Make sense? 9k worth of crap between the tags.

Ok. They claim that it's IE, not them, that's bizarre here.

Apparently, however, there's a way to edit the .htaccess file to force custom pages? Anyone know of how to do this?

MPEDrummer

If the server has PHP, this should help you.

http://www.ibdhost.com/errors/

Yep... This is true. IE will default to its own 404 message if you do not send it one over a certain size (I believe it is 4kb... I'm not sure at all, however). If you have 'autosearch' turned off, it should work fine. To increase your file size, just go into notepad, copy a large chunk of text, place it in comments, and have it repeat over and over and over. (It doesn't count images).

If i understand you correctly...
 

If your running on a linux platform, this is affected in the .httaccess file in the root of the domain. For example my 404 file,www.arch13.com/404 is set this way, as well as my 504 errors.
On an MS platform, this is set via root services and must be done by your server admin. in asp, this is simpler. Do a google for "asp 404" in quotations.
If this is your ISP as host, they may lock your .httaccess or root services on basic ISP free space. In fact most do. You'll need to have an actual hosting plan for the ability for custom error messages.
Additionaly, no respectable free server (geocities, etc...) will allow you access to root domains. thats why their free.
You can change the errror message on YOUR machine when a page can't be found, but that's just a customazation of your installed IE and would not be what others see in a 404 error.
The answer to that is in the MS knowledgebase under the IE section.
HTH