You might be finding it difficult to debug ASP errors in a browser. This is because IE, versions 5.0 and up, defaults to a ridiculous option that suppresses errors to a more "friendly" error (which, IMHO, is a lot more cryptic than what they'd get otherwise). This comes back to the user as a 500.100 Internal Server Error (ASP 0147), and in certain scenarios a 404 Page cannot be found error, and doesn't leave the user much information to pass on to the webmaster, except to tell them that "The page cannot be displayed."
To circumvent this silliness and get real ASP errors, go to IE's Tools/Internet Options menu, and on the advanced tab, uncheck "Show friendly HTTP error messages."
Hit Apply, OK, and refresh the page in question. There are five possible outcomes; the page will either:
- still yield cryptic and unhelpful error messages (e.g. Page Not Found);
- stop processing where the error occurs, and leave the rest of the page blank;
- return "Server Application Error";
- give you a more detailed error; or,
- magically work again.
For (a), open Internet Services Manager, go to the home directory tab of your default web site or application, click on Configuration, go to the Debugging tab, and make sure "Send detailed error messages to the client" is selected.
Page not found errors can also be caused by the IIS Lockdown wizard; or, in Windows Server 2003 / IIS 6.0, a misconfigured Application Server. See Article #2147 for information on configuring your application server to allow the server to process ASP files.
For (b), if you aren't heavily dependant on automated debugging, open Internet Services Manager, go to the home directory tab of your default web site or application, click on Configuration, go to the Debugging tab, and uncheck "Enable ASP server-side script debugging" and "Enable ASP client-side script debugging."
For (c), open Internet Services Manager, right-click the application, select Properties, and on the Home Directory tab, click the Remove button to unload the application, and OK out of the dialog. Go back in and hit Create to reload the application.
If this error is happening under the default web site, try restarting IIS, using the following command line or batch file:
If that doesn't help, then try the suggestions in Article #2226, Article #2267, Article #2355, and Article #2356.
Finally, check the event log, as occasionally there is more information there than you will see in the browser. Of course this is even more likely if you can't change the IIS or browser configurations.
See KB #261200 and KB #311766 for more information.
[ Comment, Edit or Article Submission ]
