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Web Programming279
Would someone please explain to me in LAYMAN terms what error code 406 and

why some of my sites get accepted and others don't?



In researching this error code, I couldn't understand all the technical terms.

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Catherine


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Google REALLY is your friend, you know:

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HTTP Error 406 - Not acceptable

Introduction

A client (e.g. your Web browser or our CheckUpDown robot) can

indicate to the Web server characteristics of the data it will accept back

from the Web server. This is done using 'accept headers' of the following

types:



a.. Accept: The MIME types accepted by the client. For example, a

browser may only accept back types of data (HTML files, GIF files etc.) it

knows how to process.

b.. Accept-Charset: The character sets accepted by the client.

c.. Accept-Encoding: The data encoding accepted by the client e.g.

the file formats it understands.

d.. Accept-Language: The natural languages (English, German etc.)

accepted by the client.

e.. Accept-Ranges: Whether the client accepts ranges of bytes from

the resource i.e. a portion of the resource.

If the Web server detects that the data it wants to return is not

acceptable to the client, it returns a header containing the 406 error code.



406 errors in the HTTP cycle

Any client (e.g. your Web browser or our CheckUpDown robot) goes

through the following cycle:



a.. Obtain an IP address from the IP name of your site (your site

URL without the leading 'http://'). This lookup (conversion of IP name to IP

address) is provided by domain name servers (DNSs).

b.. Open an IP socket connection to that IP address.

c.. Write an HTTP data stream through that socket.

d.. Receive an HTTP data stream back from your Web server in

response. This data stream contains status codes whose values are determined

by the HTTP protocol. Parse this data stream for status codes and other

useful information.

This error occurs in the final step above when the client receives

an HTTP status code that it recognises as '406'.



Resolving 406 errors - general

This error occurs very infrequently in Web browsers, because most

browsers will accept any data returned from your Web server.



If the client is not a Web browser, then anyone can only investigate

the problem by looking at the Accept headers generated by the client system

and the data stream returned by the Web server. If you do not have access to

the source code for these systems, the only thing you can do is refer the

problem to technical support people at the companies that developed the

systems.



Resolving 406 errors - CheckUpDown

This error should simply never occur in your CheckUpDown account. If

it does, it typically indicates defective programming of our systems or of

the Web server which manages your site. We do not use accept headers at all,

so there is no reason for your Web server to generate a 406 error.



Please contact us (email preferred) whenever you encounter 406

errors - there is nothing you can do to sort them out. We then have to

liaise with your ISP and the vendor of your Web server software to agree the

exact reason for the error.







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"Looks Professionial" <LooksProfessionial@discussions.microsoft.com>wrote

in message news:F34336BC-68F2-4A88-A57C-E045C1319833@microsoft.com...



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