URL Errors on Webmaster Tools

[33marcus]

I have lots of Server Errors showing under Site Errors/URL Errors on Webmaster Tools and I'd like to know how to get rid of them.

They are all links from my old site which was updated recently and no longer exist. Not sure why they are showing. They are all "Response Code 500". I have selected and marked as fixed but they still show. Most are random urls from a hotel booking api I used to have with random urls ending like;

"/9129&checkin=08/28/2010&checkout=08/30/2010&room=1&adults[1]=2&child[1]=0&currency=GBP&sorttype=1"

[Robert Charlton]

33 marcus - Does this relate in any way to problems you report in this thread in our Apache forum?

url problems
[webmasterworld.com...]

Or is a separate issue?

[33marcus]

No, I resolved that problem. This is a separate issue. Thanks

[lucy24]

with random urls ending like;

"/9129&checkin=08/28/2010&checkout=08/30/2010&room=1&adults[1]=2&child[1]=0&currency=GBP&sorttype=1"

OK, obvious question first:

What happens if you request an URL in this form? That's really a two-part question: What does a human see, AND what happens behind the scenes in the way of redirects or rewrites?

Those literal brackets make me uneasy. So does the absence of an initial ? before you start in on the & But it still shouldn't lead to anything more serious than a 404 ("sorry, couldn't find this page"). A 500-class error means "the server doesn't want to see a request in this form ever again".

[phranque]

A 500-class error means "the server doesn't want to see a request in this form ever again".

actually a 500 status code response simply means the server process failed to provide an expected response.
it doesn't necessarily imply anything about the request.
this may simply mean your script failed before a status code or any headers were provided in the response.

http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html#sec10.5.1

500 Internal Server Error
The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request.

[lucy24]

Picky, picky :-P Sure, it's not a 400 ("The client SHOULD NOT repeat the request without modifications"). But if certain requests always result in an error, then there's a problem with the request. Or, of course, with your server's response to the request-- but the client doesn't know that :)

[33marcus]

Hi lucy24, there are no redirects or rewrites & when I go to the urls I get;

"Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, [e-mail] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request."

[phranque]

whenever there is a 500 Internal Server Error there is almost certainly a relevant entry in the server error log.
request the problem url, note the time, and go look in the error log for clues.

also, if there is a 500 Internal Server Error error encountered while trying to serve an ErrorDocument, it probably means you are using a script for an error document.
i would recommend using a static (.html) error document unless you really need a script.
you should also see the error log entry thrown by the ErrorDocument problem, so don't confuse these problems since they may have the same time stamp.