How do I avoid 'the red x' when an image is missing?

The 'red x' is a fairly telltale symptom of (a) a poorly maintained file system, or (b) poorly written HTML code. :-) There is a way to prevent this nasty little red x from showing up. Read Article #2162, which describes how to set up a custom 404 page to capture mistyped URLs and missing files. You can modify the example there to include the following code: 
 

<%      qs = Request.ServerVariables("QUERY_STRING")      if left(qs,4)="404;" then qs = right(qs,len(qs)-4)      if qs <> "" then          qsf = lcase(qs)          if right(qsf,4)=".gif" or right(qsf,4)=".jpg" or _              right(qsf,5)=".jpeg" or right(qsf,4)=".png" then              Server.Transfer("/404.gif")              ' use Response.Redirect for IIS 4.0          end if      end if  %>

 
Now any bad request for an image file will result in the 404 graphic to be displayed. For example:

Just make sure that you have a file called /404.gif, or else the custom error page will go into an infinite loop.