OK, shop just gone live (v 3.6) and so replaced a shop using different software. I have Friendly URLs Settings turned on and the htaccess file seems OK. However if a visitor arrives using a URL from the earlier shop which had a different URL structure, then a blank page results, no error message.
 
I notice, having put in non-existent URLs on several of the live sites pointed to on the top menu of the Viart site, that the result is exactly the same so it seems not my install but perhaps a viart glitch (?).
 
It would be useful if non-existent URLs at least resulted in the home page being displayed. How can this be done (so as not to lose customers)?
 
Thanks in advance

This discussion addresses various imperfect ways to handle page errors without causing search engine confusion:
http://www.mcanerin.com/en/articles/301-redirect-404-error.asp

To return users to home page you need to change in your friendly_url.php file these lines (264-267):
$is_friendly_url = false;
header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
header("Status: 404 Not Found");
exit;
 
to this line:
header("Location: index.php");exit;
 
Please do not forget to make a backup file before doing any changes.
 
Regards,
ViArt Team