HTTP Error 505 - HTTP version not supported

Introduction

The Web server (running the Web site) does not support, or refuses to support, the HTTP protocol version specified by the client (e.g. your Web browser or our CheckUpDown robot) in the HTTP request data stream sent to the server.

The HTTP protocol has various versions identified as major.minor e.g. version 0.9, 1.0 or 1.1. The server is indicating that it is unable or unwilling to complete the request using the major version provided by the client - other than with this error message.

Assuming that your request identifies a valid major.minor version number (the request is not fundamentally corrupt), then this error should mostly only occur if you are trying to use version 1.0 or 1.1, but the Web server only supports the older 0.9 version.

505 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://'). This lookup (conversion of IP name to IP address) is provided by domain name servers (DNSs).
• 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 data stream contains status codes whose values are determined by the HTTP protocol. Parse this data stream for status codes and other useful information.

This error occurs in the final step above when the client receives an HTTP status code that it recognises as '505'. (Last updated: March 2012).

Fixing 505 errors - general

Most Web browsers assume that Web servers support 1.x versions of the HTTP protocol. In practice very old versions such as 0.9 are little used nowadays, not least because they provide poorer security and performance than newer versions of the protocol. So if you see this error in your Web browser, the only option is to upgrade the Web server software. If version 1.x requests fail, it may well be because the Web server is supporting the 1.x protocol versions badly, rather than not supporting them at all.

The same arguments apply if your client is not a Web browser.

Fixing 505 errors - CheckUpDown

It is our responsibility to support whatever versions of the HTTP protocol all Web servers understand. Because very old versions such as 0.9 are little used nowadays, our CheckUpDown robot uses 1.x versions of HTTP when we try to access the Web site. If these fail, it may well be because the Web server is supporting the 1.x protocol versions badly, rather than not supporting them at all.

Please contact us (email preferred) whenever you encounter 505 errors - there is nothing you can do to sort them out. We then have to analyse the underlying HTTP data streams and may have to liaise with your ISP and the vendor of the Web server software to agree how different HTTP protocol versions should be supported. In the worst case we may have to revise our program code supporting particular HTTP versions, which may take some time.