diff --git a/core/views_expo.py b/core/views_expo.py
index fb4c06c..49f8bc7 100644
--- a/core/views_expo.py
+++ b/core/views_expo.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ from django.http import HttpResponse, HttpResponseRedirect, Http404
 from django.urls import reverse, resolve
 from django.template import Context, loader
 from django.views.decorators.csrf import ensure_csrf_cookie
+from django.contrib import admin
 
 import django.forms as forms
 
@@ -55,93 +56,96 @@ def expofilesdir(request, dirpath, filepath):
             fileitems.append((Path(urlpath) / f.parts[-1], str(f.parts[-1]), getmimetype(f)))
     return render(request, 'dirdisplay.html', { 'filepath': urlpath, 'fileitems':fileitems, 'diritems': diritems,'settings': settings })
 
+def expowebpage(request, expowebpath, path):
+    '''Adds memnus and serves an HTML page
+    '''
+    if not Path(expowebpath / path).is_file():
+        return render(request, 'pagenotfound.html', {'path': path})
+        
+    with open(os.path.normpath(expowebpath / path), "rb") as o:   
+        html = o.read()
+    
+    m = re.search(rb'(.*)<\s*head([^>]*)>(.*)<\s*/head\s*>(.*)<\s*body([^>]*)>(.*)<\s*/body\s*>(.*)', html, re.DOTALL + re.IGNORECASE)
+    if m:
+        preheader, headerattrs, head, postheader, bodyattrs, body, postbody = m.groups()
+    else:
+        return HttpResponse(html + "HTML Parsing failure: Page could not be split into header and body: failed in expowebpage in views_expo.py")
+    m = re.search(rb"<title>(.*)</title>", head, re.DOTALL + re.IGNORECASE)
+    if m:
+        title, = m.groups()
+    else:
+        title = ""
+    m = re.search(rb"<meta([^>]*)noedit", head, re.DOTALL + re.IGNORECASE)
+    if m:
+        editable = False
+    else:
+        editable = True
+    
+    has_menu = False
+    menumatch = re.match(rb'(.*)<div id="menu">', body, re.DOTALL + re.IGNORECASE)
+    if menumatch:
+        has_menu = True
+    menumatch = re.match(rb'(.*)<ul id="links">', body, re.DOTALL + re.IGNORECASE)
+    if menumatch:
+        has_menu = True
+    return render(request, 'flatpage.html', {'editable': editable, 'path': path, 'title': title, 
+                'body': body, 'homepage': (path == "index.htm"), 'has_menu': has_menu})
+    
+
 def expopage(request, path):
     '''Either renders an HTML page from expoweb with all the menus,
     or serves an unadorned binary file with mime type
-    
-    This is a horrible mess and some code is redundant and unreachable because of urls.py setup
     '''
-    # print(" - EXPOPAGES delivering the file: {} as MIME type: {}".format(path,getmimetype(path)),flush=True)
+    #print(" - EXPOPAGES delivering the file: '{}':{} as MIME type: {}".format(request.path, path,getmimetype(path)),flush=True)
 
     if path.startswith("noinfo") and settings.PUBLIC_SITE and not request.user.is_authenticated():
-        # print((" - EXPOPAGES redirect to logon: flat path noinfo", path))
         return HttpResponseRedirect(urljoin(reverse("auth_login"),'?next={}'.format(request.path)))
 
-    expowebpath = Path(settings.EXPOWEB)
-    if path.endswith("/") or path == "":
-        # print(" - EXPOPAGES the file: {} ENDSWITH ...".format(path))
+    if path.startswith("admin/"):
+        # don't even attempt to handle these sorts of mistakes
+        return HttpResponseRedirect("/admin/")
+
+    expowebpath = Path(settings.EXPOWEB)
+
+    if path == "":
+        return expowebpage(request, expowebpath, "index.htm")
 
-        try:
-            o = open(os.path.normpath(expowebpath / path / "index.html"), "rb")
-            path = path + "index.html"
-        except IOError:
-            try:
-                o = open(os.path.normpath(expowebpath / path / "index.htm"), "rb")
-                path = path + "index.htm"
-            except IOError:
-                return render(request, 'pagenotfound.html', {'path': path})
-    else:
-        # print(" - EXPOPAGES the file: '{}'  ...".format(path))
-        if path.startswith('site_media'):
-            # print(" - MEDIA_ROOT: {}  ...{}".format(settings.MEDIA_ROOT, path))
-            path = path.replace("site_media", settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
-            filetobeopened = os.path.normpath(path)
-        elif path.startswith("static"):
-            # print(" - STATIC_ROOT: {}  ...{}".format(settings.MEDIA_ROOT, path))
-            path = path.replace("static", settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
-            filetobeopened = os.path.normpath(path)
-        else:
-            # print(" - NO    _ROOT: {}  ...".format(expowebpath))
-            filetobeopened = os.path.normpath(expowebpath / path)
-        
-        # print(" - EXPOPAGES full path : {}  ...".format(filetobeopened))
-        try:
-            o = open(filetobeopened, "rb")
-            #print(" - EXPOPAGES full path no error: {}  ...".format(filetobeopened))
-        except IOError:
-            #print(" - EXPOPAGES ERROR: {}  ...".format(filetobeopened))
-            #o.close() 
-            return render(request, 'pagenotfound.html', {'path': path})
- 
- 
     if path.endswith(".htm") or path.endswith(".html"):
-        # add the menus etc.
-        with open(os.path.normpath(expowebpath / path), "rb") as o:   
-            html = o.read()
+        return expowebpage(request, expowebpath, path)
+    
+    if Path(expowebpath / path ).is_dir():
+        for p in ["index.html", "index.htm", "default.html"]:
+            try:
+                o = open(os.path.normpath(expowebpath / path / p), "rb")
+            except IOError:
+                pass
+            else: # no exception, so file was found
+                return expowebpage(request, expowebpath, Path(path) / p)
+        return render(request, 'pagenotfound.html', {'path': Path(path) / "index.html"})
         
-        m = re.search(rb'(.*)<\s*head([^>]*)>(.*)<\s*/head\s*>(.*)<\s*body([^>]*)>(.*)<\s*/body\s*>(.*)', html, re.DOTALL + re.IGNORECASE)
-        if m:
-            preheader, headerattrs, head, postheader, bodyattrs, body, postbody = m.groups()
-        else:
-            return HttpResponse(html + "HTML Parsing failure: Page could not be split into header and body: failed in expopages.views.py")
-        m = re.search(rb"<title>(.*)</title>", head, re.DOTALL + re.IGNORECASE)
-        if m:
-            title, = m.groups()
-        else:
-            title = ""
-        m = re.search(rb"<meta([^>]*)noedit", head, re.DOTALL + re.IGNORECASE)
-        if m:
-            editable = False
-        else:
-            editable = True
-        
-        has_menu = False
-        menumatch = re.match(rb'(.*)<div id="menu">', body, re.DOTALL + re.IGNORECASE)
-        if menumatch:
-            has_menu = True
-        menumatch = re.match(rb'(.*)<ul id="links">', body, re.DOTALL + re.IGNORECASE)
-        if menumatch:
-            has_menu = True
-            #body, = menumatch.groups()
-#        if re.search(rb"iso-8859-1", html):
-#            body = str(body, "iso-8859-1")
-#            body.strip
-        return render(request, 'flatpage.html', {'editable': editable, 'path': path, 'title': title, 
-                    'body': body, 'homepage': (path == "index.htm"), 'has_menu': has_menu})
+    if path.endswith("/"):
+        # we already know it is not a directory.
+        # the final / may have been appended by middleware if there was no page without it
+        # do not redirect to a file path without the slash as we may get in a loop. Let the user fix it:
+        return render(request, 'dirnotfound.html', {'path': path, 'subpath': path[0:-1]})
+   
+    if path.startswith('site_media'): # BUT we may have missing files, directories or .html here too?!
+        # print(" - MEDIA_ROOT: {}  ...{}".format(settings.MEDIA_ROOT, path))
+        npath = path.replace("site_media", settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
+        filetobeopened = os.path.normpath(npath)
+    elif path.startswith("static"):
+        # print(" - STATIC_ROOT: {}  ...{}".format(settings.MEDIA_ROOT, path))
+        npath = path.replace("static", settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
+        filetobeopened = os.path.normpath(npath)
     else:
-        # print(" - EXPOPAGES delivering the file: {} as MIME type: {}".format(path,getmimetype(path)))
+        filetobeopened = os.path.normpath(expowebpath / path)
+    
+    try:
         return HttpResponse(content=open(filetobeopened, "rb"), content_type=getmimetype(path))
-        #return HttpResponse(content=open(singlescan.ffile,"rb"), content_type=getmimetype(path))
+    except IOError:
+        return render(request, 'pagenotfound.html', {'path': path})
+ 
+ 
 
 def getmimetype(path):
     path = str(path)
diff --git a/middleware.py b/middleware.py
index 43f7328..56078a9 100644
--- a/middleware.py
+++ b/middleware.py
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 from django.conf import settings
 from django import http
-from django.urls import reverse, resolve
-#from django.core.urlresolvers import resolve
+from django.urls import reverse, resolve,Resolver404
 """Non-standard django middleware is loaded from this file.
 """
 
@@ -17,19 +16,31 @@ class SmartAppendSlashMiddleware(object):
     """
 
     def process_request(self, request):
-        """
-        Rewrite the URL based on settings.SMART_APPEND_SLASH
-        """
+        '''Called for every url so return as quickly as possible
+        Append a slash if SMART_APPEND_SLASH is set, the resulting URL resolves and it doesn't without the /
+        '''
+        if not settings.SMART_APPEND_SLASH:
+            return None
+ 
+        if request.path.endswith('/'):
+            return None
+            
+        if request.path.endswith('_edit'):
+            return None
 
-        # Check for a redirect based on settings.SMART_APPEND_SLASH
         host = http.HttpRequest.get_host(request)
         old_url = [host, request.path]
-        new_url = old_url[:]
-        # Append a slash if SMART_APPEND_SLASH is set and the resulting URL
-        # resolves.
-        if settings.SMART_APPEND_SLASH and (not old_url[1].endswith('/')) and not _resolves(old_url[1]) and _resolves(old_url[1] + '/'):
-            new_url[1] = new_url[1] + '/'
+        if _resolves(old_url[1]):
+            return None
+         
+        # So: it does not resolve according to our criteria, i.e. _edit doesn't count
+        new_url = old_url[:]       
+        new_url[1] = new_url[1] + '/'
+        if not _resolves(new_url[1]):
+            return None
+        else:          
             if settings.DEBUG and request.method == 'POST':
+                # replace this exception with a redirect to an error page
                 raise RuntimeError("You called this URL via POST, but the URL doesn't end in a slash and you have SMART_APPEND_SLASH set. Django can't redirect to the slash URL while maintaining POST data. Change your form to point to %s%s (note the trailing slash), or set SMART_APPEND_SLASH=False in your Django settings." % (new_url[0], new_url[1]))
         if new_url != old_url:
             # Redirect
@@ -45,9 +56,12 @@ class SmartAppendSlashMiddleware(object):
 
 def _resolves(url):
     try:
-        resolve(url)
+        # If the URL does not resolve, the function raises a Resolver404 exception (a subclass of Http404) 
+        match = resolve(url)
+        # this will ALWAYS be resolved by expopages because it will produce pagenotfound if not the thing asked for
+        # so handle this in expopages, not in middleware 
         return True
-    except http.Http404:
+    except Resolver404:
         return False
     except:
         print(url)
diff --git a/settings.py b/settings.py
index af9c18d..f42e8eb 100644
--- a/settings.py
+++ b/settings.py
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ LOGBOOK_PARSER_SETTINGS = {
                 "1982": ("1982/log.htm", "Parseloghtml01"), 
             }
 
-APPEND_SLASH = False
+APPEND_SLASH = False # never relevant because we have urls that match unknown files and produce an 'edit this page' response
 SMART_APPEND_SLASH = True
 
 
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ INSTALLED_APPS = (
 # See the recommended order of these in https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.2/ref/middleware/
 MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
     #'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware', # SECURE_SSL_REDIRECT and SECURE_SSL_HOST # we don't use this
-    'django.middleware.gzip.GZipMiddleware', # not needed as expofiles and photos served by apache
+    'django.middleware.gzip.GZipMiddleware', # not needed when expofiles and photos served by apache
     'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware', # Manages sessions, if CSRF_USE_SESSIONS then it needs to be early
     'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware', # DISALLOWED_USER_AGENTS, APPEND_SLASH and PREPEND_WWW
     'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware', # Cross Site Request Forgeries by adding hidden form fields to POST
@@ -138,20 +138,20 @@ MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
     'django.contrib.admindocs.middleware.XViewMiddleware', # this and docutils needed by admindocs
     'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware', # Cookie-based and session-based message support. Needed by admin system
     'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware', # clickjacking protection via the X-Frame-Options header
-    'troggle.middleware.SmartAppendSlashMiddleware' # 
+    'troggle.middleware.SmartAppendSlashMiddleware' # doesn't seem to be working...
 )
 
 ROOT_URLCONF = 'troggle.urls'
 
-WSGI_APPLICATION = 'troggle.wsgi.application'
+WSGI_APPLICATION = 'troggle.wsgi.application' # change to asgi as soon as we upgrade to Django 3.0
 
 ACCOUNT_ACTIVATION_DAYS=3
 
-AUTH_PROFILE_MODULE = 'core.person'
+# AUTH_PROFILE_MODULE = 'core.person' # used by removed profiles app ?
 
 QM_PATTERN="\[\[\s*[Qq][Mm]:([ABC]?)(\d{4})-(\d*)-(\d*)\]\]"
 
-# Re-enable TinyMCE when Dj upgraded to v3. Also templates/editflatpage.html
+# Re-enable TinyMCE when Dj upgraded to v3. Also templates/editexpopage.html
 # TINYMCE_DEFAULT_CONFIG = {
     # 'plugins': "table,spellchecker,paste,searchreplace",
     # 'theme': "advanced",
diff --git a/templates/dirnotfound.html b/templates/dirnotfound.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9bf190f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/templates/dirnotfound.html
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+{% extends "expobase.html" %}
+{% block title %}Directory not found {{ path }}{% endblock %}
+{% block body %}
+<h1>Directory not found '{{ path }}'</h1>
+<h3>Click here: <a href="/{{ subpath }}">/{{ subpath }}</a> </h3>
+<p>i.e. without the final '/' 
+{% include "menu.html" %}
+{% endblock %}