and in a similar vein the same goes for custom error redirection

[rvj]

3. does the use of custom errors such as invalid directory (404) etc have a
miminal impact on server resources or it is significant

4. ... and are there any easy ways to monitor/measure/compare ?

 

[Anthony Jones]

3. does the use of custom errors such as invalid directory (404) etc have a
miminal impact on server resources or it is significant

Thats not easy to answer because

1. The question isn't that clear (when a 404 happens the server has to do
something anyway)
2. In normal circumstances errors would be rare hence performance impact
would not be a consideration

4. ... and are there any easy ways to monitor/measure/compare ?

Don't know of 'easy' ways, although your definition of 'easy' may differ
from mine.

Putting it all together you are considering sending images using a Custom
404 hack. Its much more expensive than allowing IIS to serve up the images
itself.

 

[rvj]

I was thinking in terms of having virtually having no directory structure
to speak of so virtually all requests would be via custom redirection to a
database or some other routing technology

 

[Anthony Jones]

I was thinking in terms of having virtually having no directory structure
to speak of so virtually all requests would be via custom redirection to a
database or some other routing technology

Funny that I've just this minute been discussing that in the iis group (see
subject ' custom 404 page headers problem' started by 'Simon')

Also in this group 'Detecting if modified since in Classic Asp' started by
'Simon'

However I don't need either of these threads to say: Don't do it, its just
plain mad.

At least not in this way (using the 404 hack).

Instead get yourself a freebie ISAPI URL rewriter and do it that way.

 

[rvj]

thanks for the advice

PS this is where I came in