# WTF is the "500 Internal Server Error"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 11, 2002, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-is-the-500-internal-server-error/97565 "2002-03-11T13:39:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2002, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-is-the-500-internal-server-error/97565/1 "2002-03-11T13:39:43Z")
My (soon to be former) webhost decided to upgrade servers and control panels a few weeks ago (incidentally about the same time the SDMB went down :(), which all but totally hosed my web site. I got most of the stuff back from my backup, but my CGI scripts are DOA. Take for instance [my date script](http://www.sixdegreesofnothing.com/cgi-bin/today.cgi) . Other than minor configuration settings, all I really needed to do was provide the route to perl on the server, which I did. Yet the 500 error. Is the 500 an error on my part, or is my (really soon to be former) webhost really sucky enough to have misconfigured a server? And on a side note, does anybody know how to backup/reload a mySQL database? My boards would thank you. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2002, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-is-the-500-internal-server-error/97565/2 "2002-03-11T13:51:58Z")
Okay, did some research and checked out possible problems. Yes, I did upload the script in ASCII mode. Yes the path to Perl is correct. Yes, the program is chmoded correctly (tried 705, 755, and 777 with no success). ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2002, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-is-the-500-internal-server-error/97565/3 "2002-03-11T21:57:30Z")
I’m just starting to learn Web programming, using Java beans, and am also wrestling with this most dreaded of errors. Some of my beans work, and some don’t, and I don’t know why. So I’m definitely not an authority, but FWIW I did recently have such an error, and was able to prevent it by initializing a String object in the bean to a nonblank value. I have no idea why that made this particular bean work. ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2002, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-is-the-500-internal-server-error/97565/4 "2002-03-12T02:42:28Z")
Woosh! 🙂 Oh boogers. Mods, I meant to post this in GQ. Could somebody move it for me? Unless, of course, I did post it in GQ and it was moved here. In which case, um, never mind.