Page 8: HTTP Error 302

HTTP Error 302 - Moved temporarily

Introduction

Your Web server thinks that your URL has been temporarily redirected to another URL. The client system is expected to immediately retry the alternate URL.

302 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 the Web server:

• Obtain an IP address from the IP name of the site (the site URL without the leading 'http://').
• Open an IP socket connection to that IP address.
• Write an HTTP data stream through that socket.
• Receive an HTTP data stream back from the Web server in response.

This error occurs in the final step above when the client receives an HTTP status code that it recognises as '302'.

Resolving 302 errors - general

The 302 response from the Web server should always include an alternative URL to which redirection should occur. If it does, a Web browser will immediately retry the alternative URL. So you never actually see a 302 error in a Web browser, unless perhaps you have a corrupt redirection chain e.g. URL A redirects to URL B which in turn redirects back to URL A. If your client is not a Web browser, it should behave in the same way as a Web browser i.e. immediately retry the alternative URL.
If the Web server does not return an alternative URL with the 302 response, then either the Web server sofware itself is defective or the Webmaster has not set up the URL redirection correctly.