andreasfriedrich - 2:59 pm on Mar 6, 2003 (gmt 0)

>>You could still redirect 404's to another page, but
>>that page should give the 404 header to the user-agent.

Which would change the meaning of what you are telling the UA. If instead of sending a 404 when a resource is not found you send a 301 or 302 to redirect to another page you are telling the UA that the originally requested resource is available at a new location. The UA will then request that new URL and will get a 404. This tells him that the new URL could not be found on the server. So the first URL moved (temporarily/permanently) and the second URL could not be found. This is different from saying the first URL could not be found.

Andreas