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How Web site administrators can troubleshoot an "HTTP 500 - Internal Server Error" error message on IIS 4.0 or on IIS 5.0

Article ID: 311766 - View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q311766

We strongly recommend that all users upgrade to Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) version 7.0 running on Microsoft Windows Server 2008. IIS 7.0 significantly increases Web infrastructure security. For more information about IIS security-related topics, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/prodtech/IIS.mspx

(http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/prodtech/IIS.mspx)

For more information about IIS 7.0, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.iis.net/

(http://www.iis.net/)

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Summary

The following error message indicates that a problem has occurred on the Web server that hosts the Web site at the time the error is returned:

HTTP 500 - Internal Server Error

This article describes how to troubleshoot these errors. This article is intended for Web site administrators. These errors have a number of causes and can effect many different system configurations. The procedures that are described in this article must be performed by a member of the Administrators group on the server.

End users that experience these errors should notify the Web site administrator of the problem.

When you try to load the Localstart.asp file

When one of the default documents for the Web site, Iisstart.asp, tries to load the Localstart.asp file, and the user who tries to access the page does not have the correct permissions to run the script that the Localstart.asp file contains, you receive an HTTP 500 error message. If you clear the Show Friendly HTTP Error Messages check box, you see information similar to the following with the HTTP 500 error message:

Error Type:
Microsoft VBScript runtime (0x800A0046)
Permission denied: 'GetObject'
/localstart.asp, line 19

This problem occurs because the Localstart.asp file contains Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI) and Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) code that uses the IIS Admin Objects to access the metabase. For security reasons, access to the metabase is restricted to members of the local Administrators group. This behavior is by design.

To resolve this problem, follow these steps:

Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Information Services.
In the console tree, click Default Web Site. In the display pane, right-click Localstart.asp, and then click Properties.
On the File Security tab, click Edit under Anonymous access and authentication control.
On the Authentication Methods property page, click to clear Anonymous access.

When you browse an ASP page

When you browse an Active Server Pages (ASP) Web page, you receive an "HTTP 500.100 - Internal Server Error - ASP error" error message. If you clear the Show Friendly HTTP Error Messages check box, you see information similar to the following in the "Technical Information (for support personnel)" section:

Error Type:
Microsoft VBScript runtime (0x800A01F4)
Variable is undefined: 'x'
/OptionExplicitError.asp, line 9

Page:
GET /OptionExplicitError.asp

To resolve this problem, either remove the Option Explicit statement or use the DIM keyword to declare the variable.

To reproduce this behavior, run an ASP file that contains the following code in a virtual directory that permits script execution:

<% Option Explicit %>
   <HTML>
   <HEAD>
   <TITLE>500-100 Undeclared Variable</TITLE>
   </HEAD>
   <BODY>
   <P>About to use an undeclared variable</P>
   <% 
     x = 5
   %>
   </B></P>
   </BODY>
   </HTML>

To fix this example, use the DIM statement to declare the X variable, as follows:

<% Option Explicit %>
   <HTML>
   <HEAD>
   <TITLE>500-100 Undeclared Variable</TITLE>
   </HEAD>
   <BODY>
   <P>About to use an undeclared variable</P>
   <% 
     DIM x
     x = 5
   %>
   </B></P>
   </BODY>
   </HTML>

When IIS 5.0 returns a Server.GetLastError error message

When a Web application or page is not available, IIS returns an error message. As a result, a customized ASP page handles the response for server-side script errors. This page returns a status of "500 Internal Server Error", which causes the client-side remote scripting applet to return no data to the remote scripting object.

To resolve this problem, create a custom error page that returns a status of "200 OK", and then reference this page in the "Custom Errors" section of your remote scripting server page or application. To do this, follow these steps:

NOTE: You can set this custom error page for individual pages, for a whole application, or for the whole Web site or Web server.

Create a copy of %SystemRoot%\Help\IISHelp\Common\500-100.asp, and store it in the same folder as the original file. Name the new file 500-100-OK.asp.
Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Notepad.
In Notepad, click Open on the File menu. In the Look in drop-down box, browse to the 500-100-OK.asp file, and then click Open.
Replace the following code
Response.Status = "500 Internal Server Error"
with the following:
Response.Status = "200 OK"
NOTE: If the error message was not modified previously, the original line of code is line 12.
On the File menu, click Save.
In Internet Services Manager, click your Web server in the console tree. If your remote scripting ASP page resides in a Web application under one of the Web sites, expand your Web application.
In the Details pane, right-click your remote scripting server ASP page, and then click Properties.
Click Custom Errors. In the list, locate the entry for 500;100. By default, this is set to a URL and refers to Help/Common/500-100.asp. Click Edit Properties.
Modify the path to point to /IISHelp/Common/500-100-OK.asp, click OK, and then click OK again.

When you use the 500-100.asp file for error handling on a non-default Web site

When you use the 500-100.asp file for error handling on a non-default Web site, you receive an HTTP 500 error message.

To resolve this problem, follow these steps:

In the console tree of the Internet Information Services snap-in, right-click the appropriate Web site, click New, and then click Virtual Directory.
In the Virtual Directory Creation Wizard, click Next. In the Alias text box, type IISHelp, and then click Next.
When you are prompted for the path to the content folder, click Browse, select the WINNT\Help\IisHelp folder, and then click Next.
On the Access Permissions page, accept all defaults, click Next, and then click Finish.
Right-click the Web site again, and then click Properties.
On the Custom Errors tab, select the "500;100" error line, and then click Edit Properties.
In the Message Type list box, type /iisHelp/common/500-100.asp in the URL text box.
Click OK, and then click OK again.

When you execute a query in Index Server

After you click Go to execute a query in Index Server, you may receive an HTTP 500 error message.

This error occurs because no default application starting point is defined for the folder that contains the query pages.

To resolve this problem, follow these steps:

In the Internet Information Services snap-in, right-click the root of the site that contains the query pages in the console tree, and then click Properties.
On the Home Directory tab, click Create.
Click OK, and then retry the query.

When you access a provider from within an ASP page

If you clear the Show Friendly HTTP Error Messages check box, you may receive the following error message when you try to access a provider from within the ASP page:

ADODB.Connection (0x800A0E7A) Provider cannot be found. It may not be properly installed. /Nwind.asp, line 10

This error occurs because a dynamic-link library (DLL) that the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) requires is not registered.

Click Start, click Run, and then type cmd.
At a command prompt, type cd %systemroot%:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Ole.
At a command prompt, type regsvr32 sqloledb.dll.
When you receive confirmation that the DLL is registered successfully, click OK.NOTE: This resolution uses a Microsoft SQL Server OLE Provider DLL, Sqloledb.dll, as an example. Because the unregistered DLL may vary based on the OLE DB provider that you are using, you must modify step 2 according to your situation.

When you set the COM+ application identity on IIS 5.0

When you try to set the COM+ application identity on IIS 5.0, you receive an HTTP 500 error message.

This problem occurs when the identity for the COM+ application or the Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) package is configured for Interactive user - the current logged on user. Because no user is currently logged on to the IIS console, the application cannot run.

To resolve this problem, set the identity for the COM+ application or the MTS package to This User, and then specify a user account. To do this, follow these steps:

Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Component Services.
In the console tree, expand Component Services, expand Computers, expand My Computer, and then expand COM+ Applications. Locate the application whose identity you want to change.
Right-click the appropriate COM+ application, and then click Properties.
On the Identity tab, click This User, type a valid account for the computer, and then click OK.

When you set the MTS application identity on IIS 4.0

When you set the MTS application identity on IIS 4.0, you receive an HTTP 500 error message.

To resolve this problem, follow these steps:

In the Internet Information Services snap-in, expand Computers, expand My Computer, and then expand Microsoft Transaction Server. Locate the package whose identity you want to change. The application is listed in the Packages Installed folder.
Right-click the package, and then click Properties.
On the Identity tab, click This User, type a valid account, and then click Apply.

When IIS 4.0 runs in its own memory space

You may receive an HTTP 500 error message when any of the following is true:

The default Web site of IIS version 4.0 is running as an isolated process in its own memory space.
Microsoft Internet Explorer is configured to use the Web proxy on Proxy Server 2.0.
Internet Explorer on BackOffice Small Business Server version 4.5 is configured to use a proxy server, and proxy server packet filtering is enabled.

To resolve this problem, follow these steps:

Click Start, point to Programs, click Microsoft Proxy Server, and then click Microsoft Management Console.
In the console tree, expand the Internet Information Server folder, and then expand the server object.
Right-click Default Web Site, and then click Properties.
On the Home Directory tab, locate the Application Settings area, and then click to clear Run in separate memory space (isolated process).
Click Apply, and then click OK.
Right-click Default Web Site, and then click Stop.
Right-click Default Web Site, and then click Start.

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References

For more information about the Show Friendly HTTP Error Messages option, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

218155

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/218155/ )

Description of Hypertext Transport Protocol error messages

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