Link that returns a page not found error

How does it show up in the referral log?

[Dave43]

On my web server (IIS), I've got a custom error page that redirects "page not found" errors to a specific page.

If another domain links to my site, but it's a dead link that returns the "page not found" error and redirects, does that referrer show up in my log? If so, how does it show up?

Thanks!

[jatar_k]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld Dave43,

I am not really sure about IIS but apache has an error log that will show all error codes such as 404. I would imagine that IIS would have a similar log but I am not sure where to find it.

[Dave43]

Thanks jatar_k. I'm actually interested in knowing whether the referrer in the http header gets logged when a "page not found" error occurs.

So, if www.yoursite.com contains a link to to www.mydomain.com/mypage.html, and that page doesn't exist in my site, does IIS still log the referrer (www.yoursite.com)?

Kind of a weird question, I know -- I'm trying to sort out some "link rot" problems on my site.

Thanks!

[jatar_k]

I would think it does

you could try it, watch (tail) your logs and then hit a page that doesn't exist through a link somewhere, see what happens.