Edit Apache configuration file for your site setting. It may be httpd.conf or a virtual host file that ends with .conf specific to your site. Add the below line with the host file and give the correct path for the error message page. ErrorDocument 404 /404.html If you do not want to create a custom page to showcase the error message, you can simply add the error message in the configuration file ErrorDocument 404 "404 - Page not found." Error status codes on the client side 400 - Bad Request 401 - Unauthorized 402 - Payment Required 403 - Forbidden 404 - Not Found 405 - Method Not Allowed 406 - Not Acceptable 407 - Proxy Authentication Required 408 - Request Timeout 409 - Conflict 410 - Gone 411 - Length Required 412 - Precondition Failed 413 - Request Entity Too Large 414 - Request-URI Too Long 415 - Unsupported Media Type 416 - Requested Range Not Satisfiable 417 - Expectation Failed Error status codes shown from server 500 - Internal Server Error 501 - Not Implemented 502 - Bad Gateway 503 - Service Unavailable 504 - Gateway Timeout 505 - HTTP Version Not Supported

.htaccess - Purpose, Considerations .htaccess is a hidden file in the web server which comes in handy when the sites are hosted in shared environment. Considerations: Slight hit to performance takes place when .htaccess directive is set as Apache checks each directory for its existence before any file access in that directory Next consideration will be with regards how the site owners manage the setting changes and its security which can be misused. (more…)