New error code needed?

Paul (Paul.Wain@brunel.ac.uk)
Wed, 20 Jul 1994 12:54:44 +0100 (BST)


Hi again,

Quick question. I have an application that is a gateway. This binds on
demand to another service. However its not always guarenteed that this
bind will be succesful, so there are occasions when no information can
be retrieved, which may only last a number of minutes.

What is the correct error code to send in this case. Im using 500 at the
moment since its an implementation error. I discounted 404 since if the
bind was successful information could be found. I also discounted 403
since although that was closer it still isnt right.

Any ideas? Or do we need another one.

Ive also put this on WWW-proxy (although I guess most if not all on
www-proxy are on www-talk :) since its a similar situation to there.
What error does the CERN pre 6 return when it cant contact the remote
site? Its a very similar situation I believe.

I would suggest something like:

406 Service Temporarily Unavaliable

I know its yet another status code but its sometimes is quite hard to
map errors onto the current set.

Paul
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