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A REAL "404 Not Found" response in ASP.NET?

Hi,
I want to create a 404 page that really sends a "404 Not Found" status that includes custom content.

Problem is that when CustomErrors is on in web.config, the errorhandling actually sends a 302 response and redirects the browser using 'Location: /mycustom404.aspx?aspxerrorpath=/asdffd.aspx' in the header. Problem with this is that I want to send Google et. al. a real "404 Not Found" status, not a "302 Found" status but I also want the page to be user-friendly and not rely on the generic 404 IIS page. I tried putting response.status="404 Not Found" on my custom404.aspx page, but all that does is tell Google that the custom404.aspx page can't be found, not the original.

Anyone have any ideas? I want Google and others to de-index pages that don't exist (thus avoiding possible duplicate content issues) but I don't want stranded users.

Thanks

raterus

What about?

Response.StatusCode = 404

ctudorprice

ASKER

tried that - same effect ast the response.status="404 Not Found".

iis doesn't find a page on my site and thus looks in web.config to see if I have custom errors. If configured, it redirects the user to that page, using the 302 and a location. I can send a 404 then but that only indicates that the custom error page was not found, not the originally requested page.

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raterus

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ctudorprice

ASKER

Thanks - I vaguely remember trying this (or a similar approach) and I found that when I configured the IIS 404 to execute my .aspx, it was executed out-of-process - or session - which was a bit of a drag. But I'll try this again - maybe I was doing something wrong. Thanks. I'll let you know how it goes.

A REAL &quot;404 Not Found&quot; response in ASP.NET?

A REAL "404 Not Found" response in ASP.NET?