Whenever I answer a problem report which involves a blog published to a Google Custom Domain, I always start my answer with a Dig log. A Dig log tells me what's behind the behaviour of the Custom Domain. Having looked at what's behind the scenes, I look at the front scenes. One very common front scene is (guess what?)
For analysing the sequence of events that lead to the "404", and various other browser related events, I use the Rex Swain HTTP Viewer. This is a free (what else?) online service, that produces an online text log (suitable for copying and pasting) of the contents of an HTTP conversation between a web client (such as your computer) and a web server (such as a Blogger server).
The HTTP Viewer isn't complicated to use.
Here's a log from a recently observed "404", a symptom that we all know so well (and wish that we did not):
And as usual, I'll excerpt the most relevant portions of the display.
That's a simple example - and you can make your own examples, easily enough.
Given the HTTP Viewer, and a good Dig log, we are probably 50% of the way towards understanding any blogger caused problems. Now, Blogger caused problems may be another story.
But this is a start.
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Server Not Foundand I'll report to someone
Error 404
You have the well knownand to a select few that will be news.
"Server Not Found
Error 404".
Great, Chuck, what do I do now?but to many bloggers
Great, Chuck, tell me something that I don't know.So, how do you describe the old "404", so you can diagnose it?
For analysing the sequence of events that lead to the "404", and various other browser related events, I use the Rex Swain HTTP Viewer. This is a free (what else?) online service, that produces an online text log (suitable for copying and pasting) of the contents of an HTTP conversation between a web client (such as your computer) and a web server (such as a Blogger server).
The HTTP Viewer isn't complicated to use.
- Direct your browser to www.rexswain.com/httpview.html.
- Copy and paste the URL of your choice, into the "URL" window.
- Select "Text" for "Display Format".
- Hit the "Submit" button.
Here's a log from a recently observed "404", a symptom that we all know so well (and wish that we did not):
Rex Swain's HTTP Viewer
http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.htmlParameters:
URL = http://www.mydomain.com
UAG = Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.17) Gecko/20080829 Firefox/2.0.0.17
AEN =
REQ = GET ; VER = 1.1 ; FMT = TXTSending request:
GET / HTTP/1.1• Finding host IP address...
Host: www.mydomain.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.17) Gecko/20080829 Firefox/2.0.0.17
Connection: close
• Host IP address = 66.249.81.121
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...Receiving Header:
HTTP/1.1·404·Not·Found(CR)(LF)
Date:·Tue,·11·Nov·2008·20:00:30·GMT(CR)(LF)
X-Content-Type-Options:·nosniff(CR)(LF)
Expires:·Tue,·11·Nov·2008·20:00:30·GMT(CR)(LF)
Cache-Control:·private,·max-age=0(CR)(LF)
Content-Length:·142(CR)(LF)
Content-Type:·text/html(CR)(LF)
Server:·GFE/1.3(CR)(LF)
Connection:·Close(CR)(LF)
(CR)(LF)End of Header (Length = 253)
• Elapsed time so far: 1 seconds
• Waiting for additional response until connection closes...Total bytes received = 395
Elapsed time so far: 1 secondsContent (Length = 142):
<HTML>(LF)
<head>(LF)
<title>404</title>(LF)
</head>(LF)
<body·bgcolor="#ffffff"·text="#000000">(LF)
<h1>Server·Not·Found</h1>(LF)
<h2>Error·404< /h2>(LF)
</body>(LF)
</html>(LF)Done
Total elapsed time: 1 seconds
And as usual, I'll excerpt the most relevant portions of the display.
Sending request:
GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: www.mydomain.com
• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 66.249.81.121
Receiving Header:
HTTP/1.1·404·Not·Found
That's a simple example - and you can make your own examples, easily enough.
Given the HTTP Viewer, and a good Dig log, we are probably 50% of the way towards understanding any blogger caused problems. Now, Blogger caused problems may be another story.
But this is a start.
>> Top
Comments
What Firefox add-ons do you use?
From what I've gathered from your post (and from checking my dig using your links), it looks like I'm getting forwarded from my HTTP site to this HTTPS. I'm totally new to website creation, but am luckily taking a course next semester about "E-commerce". I had decent success using a free-site for an MMORPG guild, but it had its own easy-mode editor!
This is a whole new league for me and I've spent at least 50 hours just trying to setup the simple gadgets/apps/settings provided by google (like adsense, my CNAME, etc.) and I believe I'm going to have to get a friend to do this for me.
Now I'll try to figure out what the heck HTTP and HTTPS mean to me! Thanks for your blog and I hope you're still bloggin' (I'm also new to blogger as well lol)!