Also common is webmaster who does not understand that many servers are case sensitive. This means that "Richard" is not same as "richard". You will see this sometimes if a webmaster moves a site from a server which is not case sensitive (VAX/OpenVMS) to one that is (Unix).

Sometimes a site simply moves to another host. This frequently happens when a site outgrows it's host. I know of one site that had to move several times because it's bandwidth demands became huge! According to webmaster this site was getting tens of thousands of visitors every day, and all of them were downloading tremendous amounts of pictures. He was booted off one server with no notice and no backup and had to rebuild his site from scratch! This kind of event will certainly cause 404 errors!

More rarely, a webmaster has been in process of uploading his site when his upload software crashed. This may leave broken links for a short time until problem is fixed.

Generally an ISP will provide, at least for a short time, a redirect page to a new site. You will see this as a "My site has moved. If you are not transported in 10 seconds click here" message.

And of course some sites simply shut down. This is actually getting more rare as it's often more expensive for an ISP to delete old data than it is simply to prevent updates.

Search engines are notorious for their broken links. You have to remember th at most search engines only examine web sites every month or so (sometimes delay is as long as six months). Because of this, all of above problems can occur, leaving broken links.

If you are really serious about your web site, you should check look of your pages not only on IE and Netscape, but even on AOL and WebTV. Take a look at this beautiful model cut in half and a disappearing act of one of my own pages: http://internetsuccesscoach.com/examples/warnerbra-N.html

WebTV, which is becoming increasingly popular, can mess up your pages big time. Pay attention, especially if you cater to visitors who are likely to surf from their living rooms (you do know a lot about your target market right?) See this Explorer/WebTV example: http://internetsuccesscoach.com/examples/webtv.html

Convinced that you need more than one? -------------------------------------- I am so glad you are! Here are places to get your downloads of most popular browsers -- it's free of cost.

Internet Explorer: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.htm

Netscape: http://home.netscape.com/download/index.html

Web TV viewer http://developer.webtv.net/design ools/viewer

America On Line: This is not free, but $4.95 p/month light usage plan is worth price - go to http://aol.com

Download Lynx at: http://www.trill-home.com/lynx/binaries.html

For a complete collection of current browsers go to http://browserwatch.internet.com/browsers.html

If you use PC, you should also check how your web site looks on Mac (many surprises here as well). One thing is sure: a page that looks splendid in one browser might look horribly or be even completely *invisible* in another. If you are serious about your business, take it to heart!