For the most part, the Internet works seamlessly, but every now and then you try to access a webpage only to receive an error.

Errors like: "host unavailable, permission denied, service unavailable, database error, and unable to locate server" mean little to the end user. They should all be treated in the same manner.

First check your computer to make sure that you can access other web pages. If you can, then you have to assume that there is a problem with the website itself. These types of errors can occur for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the server that is hosting the website crashes for some unknown reason. Sometimes, especially for smaller websites, the amount of traffic overwhelms the server. Or perhaps a website developer made a mistake that left the website unavailable.

The bottom line is that most of these errors are temporary. An outage of this nature will probably last for only a few hours, or at most, a few days. So if you get such an error when trying to access one of your favorite websites, the real solution is to just try again later. If you know the webmaster or the person who is responsible for the website, send them an email to alert them of the problem and try again later.

One other common error is the "404 page not found" error. This error indicates that the web page you are trying to access has moved or is, for some reason, unavailable. An error of this type should be treated as above. The only difference being that an error of this type may be permanent. An error of this type affects a certain page, not the entire website. If you have tried to access the page for several days and still get the same error, you have to assume that the page no longer exists. Again, feel free to notify the webmaster giving them the address of the page you are trying to reach.