500 Internal Server Error

[Max Erixon]

Aloha!

We've developed and deployed a web application that has been running smooth
for quite some time now. However, now we are getting reports from clients
that receives a 500 Internal Server Error on a specific request. We are not
able to recreate the problem with Win200 clients or Win2k3 + SP2 clients,
but the ones who are experiencing the problem are able to recreate it every
time, i.e. they are not able to access the application due to the error.

I've read some articles about symptoms like this under specific
circumstances HTTPS, Post etc. But this is a regular GET. Nothing special at
all.

Any ideas?

Notice! The Web server is NOT running WinXX, it's a unix machine with IBM
WebSphere Application Server on top of it.

BR,
Max.

 

[Steve Sepan]

Max,
First of all, to tell what's REALLY going on, you'll have to turn off
'friendly error messages' in IE:

Tools|Internet Options..., go to Advanced tab, in the list look for the
Browsing section and for the checkbox 'Show friendly HTTP error messages'
and uncheck it. Then take steps to recreate the error. Chances are you may
see something like Error # 429 (ActiveX component can't create object) or
the like.
All I can tell you is that's as far as I've gotten. We recently
installed XP SP2, and started getting the error on one of our intranet web
pages. On one machine I tried a test -- I uninstalled SP2, and the page
started working again. That's as far as I've gotten, except for searching
the web high and low for an explanation.

Steve