htaccess pages that don't exist

Sorry if this has been covered here (I'm sure it has) but I can't find it.

1.3.9h

Okay so if I change index.php?main_page=somenonpage I get not found or forwarded to index depending on admin settings.

How do I have example.com/nonexistdir or example.com/nofilehere.php or example.com/index.php?something=nothing also follow the admin rules for page not found?

Thank You,
John

I believe what you are asking is to stop seeing the default hosting service 404 page yes?

No.
the url to a define page for example is somesite.com/index.php?main_page=contact_us
so if you changed it just a bit somesite.com/index.php?main_page=contactus you get the redirect you've setup in the admin. it takes you to 404 not found or the home page...

Now, if you change the url like this somesite.com/contact_us or somesite.com/oooodlesofnoodles.php
.... you are shown the home page. Even with a canonical tag this is not good.

Zencart does deal with pages not found when that page url is structured in a way that works inside of zencart. In these cases it doesn't so it should end in a server 404 but it's not happening that way and I need to know why.

Thank You, John

Found the problem. There was a rule in my htaccess for WPress that was forwarding any unknown file or dir to the index.php.

Thanks for playing along,
John

Thanks for getting back, glad it's fixed.