Why FileNotFoundPage is null or is null by default

Question

I just tried to access property "FileNotFoundPage" for a web application and its coming up as null, I wonder if its null by default or if something changed it to null.

I would also like to know what would be the best practice for setting up custom pages, e.g. should I create a Http.Module(which I already created) or any other way except modifying " sps404.html" page in 12 hive.

Answer 1

The default value is null which sililar to empty string or wrong filename gives the default handling.

If having the same error page for the entire web app is OK, then I'd recommend setting SPWebApplication.FileNotFoundPage instead of using a HttpModule. Remember that the filename is relative to {SharePointRoot}\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS{LCID} and the file should contain more that 512 bytes