Page Not Found?

[Dirty Butter]

Is there any way to track down what people are clicking that sends them to our Page Not Found error page?

[bsmither]

If your tracker account is part of your website's code (the Google thing in CubeCart, for example), then no information will come through that way.

The 404 is when the web server cannot find what was looked for. In the .htaccess file, you can tell the web server what page you want delivered when that happens, and I suppose you can have that page be a php script that databases the web address that was asked for.

There are applications that interface at that point in time - in addition to the web server's ability to log all requests. Urchin is (was) a log file analyzer. (Acquired by Google in 2005, renamed to Google Analytics, then dropped in March 2012. What is now Google Analytics is probably something from different historical roots.

You generally don't have access to the web server's log files. But your hosting provider may dump relevant records in your hosted space under a 'logs' folder. (I've seen this folder and its contents when I was assisting others.)

Such a tool will help with friendly URL problems (to keep the conversation relevant to CubeCart), and the class of tools has been called by some 'errorlytics'. (The publisher's site for a tool named "Errorlytics" seems to be gone.)

See:

http://www.searcheng...4-page-php.html

But don't follow that advice directly as it is a hideous example - only meant to demonstrate the concept.

[Dirty Butter]

OK, with that insight I extracted the host's log and found this entry:

23.16.24.242 - - [19/Nov/2012:06:36:45 -0600] "GET /+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Result:+using+proxy+203.170.71.7:80;+no+post+sending+forms+are+found;+Result:+forum+not+found+/+could+not+find+IP+Result:+it+is+not+a+forum+/+guestbook+%28or+no+connection+to+internet%29 HTTP/1.0" 301 540 "http://plushcatalog.dirtybutter.com/+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Result:+using+proxy+203.170.71.7:80;+no+post+sending+forms+are+found;+Result:+forum+not+found+/+could+not+find+IP+Result:+it+is+not+a+forum+/+guestbook+%28or+no+connection+to+internet%29" "Opera/9.80 (Android 2.2.1; Linux; Opera Mobi/ADR-1205181138; U; ru) Presto/2.10.254 Version/12.00"

We had a spam account "register" and also a spam Review in the same time range. So am I right in saying at least THIS Not Found instance was from someone accessing the site illegally, rather than a legitimate customer accessing the site using a malformed link?

[bsmither]

I don't have the world experience to say what device, system, or application was used, or how it was connected to the Internet, or anything.

But your server gave it a 301 Redirect, and I cannot tell if the log recorded what URL was sent back as the correct URL to use.

I will say that you are right in that this is not a case of an erroneously typed CubeCart search engine friendly URL.

[Dirty Butter]

This 301 thing is a different issue entirely that I've discussed at length on the 3rd party forum in regards to a Hack provided to make custom error pages that look like the rest of the site. My issue is NOT with the hack - it works perfectly. My problem is with the way the re-direct sends strange addresses to the homepage, instead of the Not Found error page. I would appreciate your input on that thread, if you don't mind.

http://www.cubecartforums.org/index.php?showtopic=17132