[Dawn]

"WHY DOESN'T THIS WORK?"....

Can anyone please HELP me? I have used matts script cgi to send information from a contact form to my e-mail address. When I press on submit I am getting a 500 Internal Server error. I have checked everything my web host suggests but can not fix the problem. Any suggestions why I cam getting this error? I have not included the code as it is a few pages long and I am not sure which bits to send.

[job0107]

It may be a problem in your code, but doubtful.

Introduction

Your Web server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request by the client (e.g. your Web browser or our CheckUpDown robot) for access to the requested URL.
This is a 'catch-all' error generated by your Web server. Basically something has gone wrong, but the server can not be more specific about the error condition in its response to the client. In addition to the 500 error notified back to the client, the Web server should generate some kind of internal error log which gives more details of what went wrong. It is up to the operators of your Web server site to locate and analyse these logs.

500 errors in the HTTP cycle

Any client (e.g. your Web browser or our CheckUpDown robot) goes through the following cycle when it communicates with your Web server:

• Obtain an IP address from the IP name of your site (your site URL without the leading 'http://'). This lookup (conversion of IP name to IP address) is provided by domain name servers (DNSs).
• Open an IP socket connection to that IP address.
• Write an HTTP data stream through that socket.
• Receive an HTTP data stream back from your Web server in response. This data stream contains status codes whose values are determined by the HTTP protocol. Parse this data stream for status codes and other useful information.

This error occurs in the final step above when the client receives an HTTP status code that it recognises as '500'.

Resolving 500 errors - general

This error can only be resolved by fixes to the Web server software. It is not a client-side problem. It is up to the operators of your Web server site to locate and analyse the logs which should give further information about the error.

Error Message

The "500 Internal Server Error" message can be customized by each website. While this isn't very common, keep in mind that this error may present itself in more ways than the common ones listed below:

• "500: Internal Server Error"
• "HTTP Error 500 - Internal Server Error"
• "500 Error"

The 500 Internal Server Error displays inside the Internet browser window, just as web pages do.

Cause

The 500 Internal Server Error is a very general HTTP status code that means something has gone wrong on the web site's server but the server could not be more specific on what the exact problem is.

Resolution

The 500 Internal Server Error is a "server-side" error, meaning the problem is not with your PC or Internet connection but instead is a problem with the web site's server. Even though the issue is not yours to troubleshoot or resolve, there are a few things you can do:

1. Retry the web page by clicking the refresh/reload button or trying the URL from the address bar again. Even though the 500 Internal Server Error is reporting a general error on the web site's servers and not your computer, the server error may only be temporary. Trying the page again will often be successful.
   
   Note: If the 500 Internal Server Error message appears during the checkout process at an online merchant, be aware that duplicate attempts to checkout may end up creating multiple orders - and multiple charges! Most merchants have automatic protections from these kinds of actions but it's still something to keep in mind.
2. Come back later. The 500 Internal Server Error message is one of the most common error message seen when checking out during an online purchase so sales are often disrupted. This is usually a great incentive to resolve the issue very quickly.
3. If you can't wait any longer for the problem to be resolved or if you'd like to help out, you may want to attempt to contact the webmaster or another website contact and advise them of their server error. The webmaster of most Internet sites can be reached via email at webmaster@website.com, replacing website.com with the actual website name.

Applies To

This issue applies to any Internet browser in any operating system.

Related Error Messages

The following error messages are related to the "500: Internal Server Error" message: 400: Bad Request | 401: Unauthorized | 403: Forbidden | 404: Not Found | 408: Request Timeout | 502: Bad Gateway | 503: Service Unavailable | 504: Gateway Timeout

Have you got any idea what actions you were doing when the error occurred.

[Dawn]

I pressed submit on the contact form of my web page to check that the contact form was working when I got the message. I have asked the support people that host my web site but they say it is a script error beyond their scope of support. I am clueless. Is there another script I could use?

[job0107]

Can you display your contact form and any related pages?

[Dawn]

My contact form is on www.stabbsdiving.com, I can see all pages on that web site. Contact Us page.

[job0107]

<form action="formmail.cgi" id="form" method="POST">

Is formmail.cgi a program that you supplied or did it come with the hosting?

I pulled your form out of the page and tried it by it's self and it seems to be working fine.
So the only thing I can think of is formmail.cgi.
Are you sure the path is right?
Maybe "cgi-bin/formmail.cgi"?
Maybe it's corrupted or something?

[Dawn]

I used matt's script that I down loaded from hotscrips. I am sure the path is right, can I send you the form mail to try?

[job0107]

I believe we found the problem.
Did you read and follow these instructions?
http://www.scriptarchive.com/readme/...tml#setting_up

[Dawn]

Yes, but I am a total novice. I added the domain name and the email address to the form. I have read the setting up instructions a few times but still can not see what I am doing wrong.

[job0107]

The script, FormMail.pl, needs to be placed in your server's cgi-bin and the anonymous WWW user must have the ability to read/execute the script. If you do not have access to your server's cgi-bin, yet you can execute cgi scripts, you may want to try adding a .cgi extension to the FormMail.pl, renaming it to FormMail.cgi. This is probably the more common option.

When you ftp to your website, do you have a cgi-bin folder or something similar?
If you do, then use the FormMail.pl file and put it in that folder.
If you don't then you may not be able to execute cgi scripts (doubtful), as most servers allow cgi.

And then change the address in the forms action property to point to "cgi-bin/FormMail.pl".
Replace "cgi-bin" with the name of the cgi folder if need be.
If that doesn't solve the problem then print out all the instructions and contact your server admin. and see if there is anything they must do to get you up and running.