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Help for Internet Explorer errors

Microsoft Internet Explorer displays error information at the top of the window in the title bar, as well as within the window. The error that you see depends on several factors:

Protocol: If IE can communicate with a web server, then errors may arise from the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and are defined by a numeric status code and textual reason. Errors with the DNS or TCP protocols may prevent IE from communicating with a web server.
Server:
- Some servers (e.g. those using Microsoft IIS) extend HTTP status codes to more specifically define errors.
- Servers will also augment HTTP protocol errors with text that elaborates on the error, e.g. standard Apache error messages.
- Some sites will have further customized error messages, e.g. creative HTTP 404 errors
Browser:
- Version: Error messages vary with the version of Internet Explorer being used. Messages below are for IE versions 8 (current) and 7. IEv6 has slightly different messages (as noted).
- Friendly messages: If the error message from the server is brief, then Internet Explorer will elaborate with a “friendly HTTP error message”. You may need to control whether Internet Explorer uses friendly error messages (e.g. turn them off) because they can sometimes obscure the cause of an error.

Windows Internet Explorer logo

To quickly find help for a particular error, match the title at the top of your Internet Explorer window with a row in the column on the left of the table below.

Title (at the top of the window Like “Help for Internet Explorer errors” at the top of this window)	Heading (at the top of the page within IE Like “Help for Internet Explorer errors” towards the top of this window)
Address not valid	The address is not valid
Cannot find server (IE6)	The page cannot be displayed (IE6)
Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage	Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage
Navigation Canceled	Navigation to the webpage was canceled
The webpage cannot be displayed	The webpage cannot be displayed
HTTP 400 Bad Request	The webpage cannot be found The page cannot be found (IE6)
HTTP 404 Not Found	The webpage cannot be found The page cannot be found (IE6)
HTTP 403 Forbidden	The website declined to show this webpage You are not authorized to view this page (IE6)
HTTP 405 Method Not Allowed HTTP 405 - Resource not allowed (IE6)	The website cannot display the page The page cannot be displayed (IE6)
HTTP 500 Internal Server Error	The website cannot display the page The page cannot be displayed (IE6)
HTTP 501 Not Implemented / HTTP 505 Version Not Supported	The website is unable to display the webpage The page cannot be displayed (IE6)
Various titles	The website cannot display the page HTTP 405 or 500
	The page cannot be displayed HTTP 405, 500, 501, 505, Cannot find server (IE6)
	The webpage cannot be found HTTP 400 or 404
	The page cannot be found HTTP 400 or 404 (IE6)

Broad classes of Internet Explorer errors:

Other HTTP codes that may lead to Internet Explorer errors:

406: Internet Explorer cannot read this webpage format
408 or 409: The website is too busy to show the webpage
410: That webpage no longer exists

Controlling Internet Explorer

Control whether Internet Explorer uses friendly error messages

Problem solving techniques

How to:

Extra information

Internet Explorer can report many other errors. For help with them, try Microsoft “Fix It”
External help for some specific issues:

Script errors, e.g. “Internet Explorer Script Error”, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 308260: “How to troubleshoot script errors in Internet Explorer on Windows-based computers”, August 17, 2009
Microsoft Knowledge Base article 936214: “How to troubleshoot compatibility problems that affect Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista” (in particular, for problems opening IEv7)
Microsoft Knowledge Base article 936213: “How to optimize Internet Explorer” (IEv7 in Vista, IEv8 in Vista and Windows 7)
Display issues: Why don't some websites display correctly in Internet Explorer 8?

Explorer Exposed! A compendium of Internet Explorer bugs.

Windows Vista: Get help with website error messages (HTTP errors)