What does the message "There was a problem with the request and the action could not be completed." mean?

Environment

Customer Portal

Resolution

There are many possible causes of this error.  One of them is listed below:

Customer Portal page session timeout - An end user is on the "Ask" page and performs a search.  The end user navigates away from the page for longer than the timeout set in the 

VISIT_INACTIVITY_TIMEOUT configuration item, they come back and try to search again.  They will receive the message because the session has expired.

It is not advised against changing the content of this message, as it is used in many areas and making it customized to perhaps a session expiration will be confusing when it displays in another location.