A '403 Forbidden' message means that the browser has requested a page that it is not permitted to view. There are a few common causes:-
Missing or incorrectly named index file
When you don't specify a file name when accessing a site (eg visiting the domain directly as most do at
http://www.domainname.com), the server searches through a list of default filenames and will display the first one it finds. The first page of your website should use one of the following names, with all lowercase letters.
On our Linux Web Hosting platform, the following are currently set as default index pages (in order of priority):
[list=n]
[*]index.php[/*]
[*]index.html[/*]
[*]index.htm[/*]
[*]index.cgi[/*]
[*]index.rb[/*]
[*]index.py[/*]
[/list]
On our Windows platform, the following are configured (in order of priority):
[list=n]
[*]default.aspx [/*]
[*]default.asp[/*]
[*]index.php[/*]
[*]index.htm[/*]
[*]Default.htm[/*]
[*]index.asp[/*]
[*]index.html[/*]
[*]iisstart.htm[/*]
[/list]
Due to the managed nature of the platform, WordPress packages are set to only use index.php
When we create your web hosting account, we place a simple index.php file on the server so that there is something there before you upload your site. If you delete this file and don't replace it, then you will see the error message above. To fix this, ensure that the first page of your site is called index.html and that the file is uploaded to the public_html directory.
Incorrect Access Control Settings
This error will also be displayed if the directory access settings for your site's root directory are set with access criteria which you do not meet. Usually, these settings are contained in a file called ".htaccess". This file is sometimes generated manually, but can also be configured by some web development tools
Permissions errors
A file and the folder that it is in must have global read permissions - recommended settings are:-
711 or 755 for folders
755 for CGI Scripts
644 for PHP Scripts and HTML files
Site has been disabled
If we have had to disable your site to protect other users then this may show as a 403 error - we will attempt to contact you if this is the case.
If none of the above causes apply, please contact Support and we'll be happy to help.
