Tired of the normal 404 page that most of the sites out there get when you hit a page that's not found? Well, if you're using the the Apache webserver, then you're only moments away from having you're very own custom 404 page.

In this latest article from the O'Reilly Network, they step you through setting up Apache to accept the custom page, and how you can access a few of the variables on the page (for some additional information as to what the user was aiming for). They even give you a cool little "page mapping" script that can map a new location to an old one so that the user never sees the 404 - all they see is a redirect to the right content (which is always better than a "File Not Found" message).

This is a much better article than most of the "custom 404" pieces out there. They go the extra mile and show you what you can do to keep people at your site, and not drive them away with a 404 page. Even the prettiest 404 page will make people think twice about accessing your site in the future...