There are many different types of errors that can happen when building a website. One of the more common ones is the 403 Forbidden Error. Here we discuss this error and what you can do about it.
The two most common causes of a “403 Forbidden” error are:
- Incorrect File Permissions
- “No Index” in .htaccess file is improperly used
Correcting a 403 Forbidden Error
- First, you will want to check the file permissions that each of your files has set. If a file or folder is set to “777” which is “world” writable for security reasons the 403 error will be displayed to protect your website from hacks. Folders should have the permissions set to “750” or “755” and files should be set to “644”
- Once you have verified all the permissions are correct and the issue still persists, you will need to check your .htaccess file. Please keep in mind that you can have multiple .htaccess files in your account, so you may need to search / modify .htaccess files other than public_html/.htaccess. For example, if you have an addon domain located at public_html/addon_domain, you’ll need to check any .htaccess files within that folder as well. If one of the lines in the actual file says “Options All -Indexes” then simply remove “-Indexes” and save the file.
At this point if the issue still persists please contact support for further assistance in diagnosing the 403 forbidden error message.
