How do you make a custom error page?

Question

How do you make a custom error page? Is there a particular file that is common with hosting servers? How do they do this?

Answer 1

It depends on the web server and possibly the development language / environment.

For example, the following articles show how to create customised error messages in a few different environments:

• Configuring custom error messages (IIS 6)
• ASP.Net Custom Error Pages
• Creating custom error messages in Apache

Generally speaking you use only 1 type of error handling rather than combining multiple error handling methods (for example only use ASP.Net error handling rather than allowing IIS to handle errors).

My advice would be to wherever possible use the error handling of the development environment you are using (for example if you are creating an ASP.Net site, use ASP.Net error handling), however sometimes this is not always applicable (e.g. when hosting static content), and so that is when you would use the web server specific error handling.

If you want to know more about error handling in a specific environment then I suggest you create a new question.