The server sends back a status code, which is a three-digit numeric code. The five categories of status codes are:
100-199 code indicate a provisional response.
200-299 code indicate a successful transaction.
300-399 code indicate the requested resource should be retrieved from a different location.
400-499 code indicate an error was caused by the browser.
500-599 code indicate a serious error occurred in the server.
The following table lists some common status codes.
Status Code |
Meaning |
---|---|
200 |
The Request has succeeded for the method used (GET, POST, HEAD). |
201 |
The request has resulted in the creation of a new resource reference by the returned URI. |
206 |
The server has sent a response to byte range requests. |
302 |
Found. Redirection to a new URL. The original URL has moved. This result is not an error. Most browsers will get the new page. |
304 |
Use a local copy. If a browser already has a page in its cache, and the page is requested again, some browsers such as Netscape Navigator relay to the web server the “last-modified” timestamp on the browser’s cached copy. If the copy on the server is not newer than the browser’s copy, the server returns a 304 code instead of returning the page, reducing unnecessary network traffic. This result is not an error. |
400 |
Sent if the request is not a valid HTTP/1.0 or HTTP/1.1 request. For example HTTP/1.1 requires a host to be specified either in the Host header or as part of the URI on the request line. |
401 |
Unauthorized. The user requested a document but did not provide a valid user name or password. |
403 |
Forbidden. Access to this URL is forbidden. |
404 |
Not found. The document requested is not on the server. This code can also be sent if the server is configured to protect the document for unauthorized personnel. |
408 |
If the client starts a request but does not complete it within the keep-alive timeout configured in the server, then this response will be sent and the connection closed. The request can be repeated with another open connection. |
411 |
The client submitted a POST request with chunked encoding, which is of variable length. However, the resource or application on the server requires a fixed length - a Content-Length header to be present. This code tells the client to resubmit its request with Content-Length. |
413 |
Some applications, for example, certain NSAPI plug-ins cannot handle very large amounts of data, so returns this error code. |
414 |
The URI is longer than the maximum the web server is willing to serve. |
416 |
Data was requested outside the range of a file. |
500 |
A server-related error occurred. The server administrator must check the error log in the server. |
503 |
Sent if the quality of service mechanism was enabled and bandwidth or connection limits were attained. The server then serves requests with that code. |