 How to
enhance your chances of finding a file that can no longer be found at a
website: You have the URL (http address) but you get a
Not Found message.
Here's a specific example that was in Chapter 1 (the original CR Web site): http://www.idg.no/mmw/eng/eco/index.html.It's an interview with Umberto Eco (the file is /eco/index.html), and it was either disconnected from the IDG's webtree or was moved or renamed, and no forwarding address/link was given. This happens frequently. So What to do? The first thing to do is back up and delete a directory or </> at a time and search until you, by chance, find listed somewhere what you are looking for.
<www.idg.no/mmw/eng/eco/index.html> If you have no luck finding what you want in this manner, you will eventually get to the basic URL, which is http://www.idg.noand hope to find a link on the homepage to Umberto Eco or to interviews or whatever seems the logical place to look. If you find no clues--even if you click every link and button--then, look for the author or webmeister (info is usually given at the end of the first page and in the form of an e-mail link) and send him or her a very specific message with the old URL and the title of the file that you are looking for. In many cases, you will get a response eventually informing you of the new file, if one is available. (I actually sent the webmeister a note requesting the new URL; I sent it on January 25th, 1996.) If this does not work, keep the link for a while; for in many cases, it may very well be that the webtree is being worked on or that it will be reconnected. If not, then, remember that the WWW is nomadic: Here today; gone morphed into something else tomorrow! I completely understand the kind of frustration that comes with this problem, for I am constantly having to refind lost links on the CyberReader Web site as well as other Web sites that I manage. Good Luck! Update (March 6th, 1996): I heard nothing from the webmeister, so I removed the link for Eco in the Chapter 1 (Web update). As I explained, links come and go.
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