While browsing the internet it can happen that a site does not open and, after a longer or shorter wait, an error page appears. The error, almost always, has a code that can be searched on the internet and a brief description useful for understanding why that site does not open: it may be a temporary error, it may be a site that no longer exists or a page that is it has been removed, it may be either a security warning or that there is a national complaint that prevents it from being opened from Italy or another country.
Even if each browser displays the error pages in a different way, when you are unable to open and load a certain website, the different types of error pages always have the same meaning that is worth knowing to avoid wasting time or solve the connection problem.
1) Certificate error
The SSL certificate or security certificate error indicates a problem with HTTPS encryption and only applies to sites that have the internet address that begins with HTTPS.
When using HTTPS encryption, a website must give proof of identity by requesting a security certificate issued by a trusted authority.
The certification authority then verifies that the Google company is the real owner of the Google.com site.
If the browser fails to obtain verification that the certificate has been issued by a known and legitimate certification authority and that the site is not one pretending to be Google.com, then an error / warning page will appear inviting the user to pay attention.
You can then close or continue with the visit if you think that a false error due to a non-renewal of the certificate or a wrong configuration of who manages the site.
I refer, for further explanations on what to do, to another article where the meaning of the website security certificate has been explained in greater detail.
2) Phishing and malware error
A browser like Firefox, Chrome or Internet Explorer may show, when trying to open a website, an error due to suspected phishing (or fake website) or even the presence of malware.
These browsers regularly download a blacklist of dangerous sites in order to warn the user when they try to load or open them.
In some cases, the site may be completely innocent and may have been hacked or blacklisted by mistake.
However, when the browser warns of possible malware, it is always better not to continue and give up.
3) Error 404 "Page not found"
The 404 error indicates that a web page does not exist and is the most frequent one, which can appear in different or personalized ways (even in a nice way) depending on the site.
When reading the 404 code it means that the page you wanted to open has been removed or that the address is wrong and therefore does not exist.
In the case of a 404 error, the only thing you can do is check that the internet address is spelled correctly.
You can find a 404 page on any site like Facebook, Youtube or even on Navigaweb.net by writing an address like //www.navigaweb.net/pippo
In the case of page removal, there are a few ways to open web pages not found (404) from the cached copy.
4) Server not found
If the browser does not find a site, if you are sure that the internet address is correct, it means that that site is not online or cannot be reached by the computer.
As already explained in the past, it is possible to check if an offline site is not reachable for everyone or just for us.
If it were our problem, there may be a connection problem with DNS and you can then try to change DNS.
If the site is instead unreachable for everyone, it may be that the problem is temporary, and then you can try again after a few days, or definitive, and then the site managers have removed it.
5) Unable to connect
The error " Unable to connect " in Firefox or " Google Chrome cannot connect to ... " is similar to the " Server not found " error, but it means something different.
What happened in this case is that the browser successfully contacted its DNS servers and identified the website, but did not receive a response from the site's servers when it attempted to connect.
With this message it is possible that the site itself is inactive or having problems and it is less likely that it has been removed.
Also in this case it is worth doing a check as in the previous point and checking the connection parameters or any firewall.
6) Error 403
As explained in another article, the 403 Forbidden error prevents access to the site because its manager prevents it, deliberately or because of a web server configuration error.
7) Error 502
As already written in another post, the 502 Bad Gateway error is often a temporary error that depends on the incorrect response of the intermediate server between our PC and the website.
8) Other types of errors
If the browser displays errors of this type when trying to open a website, the problem is ours, the browser itself, the computer or the connection:
- Error 101 (net :: ERR_CONNECTION_RESET) : The connection has been canceled
- Error 2 (net :: ERR_FAILED) : Unknown error
- Error 104 (net :: ERR_CONNECTION_FAILED)
- Error 105 (net :: ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED)
- Error 102 (net :: ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED) : Unknown error
- Error 324 (net :: ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE)
- Error 124 (net__ERR_WINSOCK_UNEXPECTED_WRITTEN_BYTES)
- The connection was lost
- Time for connection exhausted .
A special dedication has been reserved to correct the Dns_Probe_Finished_No_Internet error
These types of errors can be caused by an incorrect configuration of Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer, by the presence of malware or by the settings of any firewall or proxy.
To solve the problem, consult the guides for:
- Reset Chrome, Firefox and IE and uninstall all extensions.
- Restore settings in browsers modified by malware, adware and toolbars
- solve internet connection problems
- Use Chrome's network verification tool
- Restore the network and web browsing if the PC does not connect to the internet.
