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Error Messages 

First of all, What is .htaccess?

Important Note: Do not edit the .htaccess file if you are using MS Frontpage! Frontpage uses the .htaccess file, and editing it may cause errors in your configuration. Yes! it can be done :) but it is beyond our technical support capabilities :).

The .htaccess file can be placed in one or more of your /home/username/domainname-www subdirectories. Just go down the bottom of the page within the www folder and type in .htaccess where it says file name and make it from there.

When a request for a web page is made, the web server first checks for an .htaccess file. The server begins this check by looking for .htaccess in the root of the current web directory, and on down the directory tree until it reaches the the directory where the requested file resides. Since the placement of the .htaccess file determines when it is executed, this fact can be used to restrict access only in certain subdirectories.

Error Documents

There are two main styles of error messages you may encounter. The first is the standard form, which looks something like:

File Not found
The requested URL domainname.com/filenamme.html was not found on this server.

The second type comes in a variety of forms, but is customized by the webmaster. For example:

Sorry
             We're sorry, but the requested URL does not exist. Please e-mail support@domainname.com if you need further assistance.

Such messages are called error documents, and are web pages designed to give a polite explanation for error conditions. These error conditions generate numbers which are used to refer to the appropriate error condition. Some of the most common messages are as follows:

Error in Client

400 Bad syntax
401 Unauthorized
403 Forbidden
404 Not Found

Error in Server

500 Internal Error
501 Not Implemented
502 Overloaded
503 Gateway Timeout

How to Customize Error Messages for Your Site
First, create the HTML page you want to use as your error message (such as error.html).
Upload it to your domainname-www directory.

Next, go into your .htaccess file (or create one by making a plain text file and name it .htaccess) and add lines which specify the substitution.

Here are three examples of specifying error documents which will be called for a given error condition (note you can use relative or absolute addressing):

ErrorDocument 401 http://yourdomain.com/nopasswd.html
ErrorDocument 403 /forbidden.html
ErrorDocument 404 http://yourdomain.com/nofile.html

Mime Types

You can add mime types to your .htaccess file with a line like:
AddType text/html .txt