Problem - 403 error

[racknrail]

For lack of a better place to post this, I will post this in the Internet section. You may or may not have noticed that I do not browse here often these days. The reason being is that I rarely have time to browse here from home. I do all my cyber socializing on my coffee and lunch breaks from work, where I get a 403 forbidden error every time I access this site now. I have tried countless times in the past couple of weeks to no avail. It's something new, as I was always able to access this site previously.

Any help would be appreciated. If this is not a resolvable problem, I guess I will say good-bye to my friends here at pc101, as I do not have much time these days at home. At my work place was pretty well my only time to browse the forums.

BTW, I have asked our systems admin at work and have confirmed this is at pc101's end. I am able to access all other sites and forums without any errors.

Thanks in advance...

-----------®N®----------

[Lyte]

Hey RnR,

Don't go!

This is the first I'm hearing of if this! I've been able to access PC101 from my previous job and my current job! With which browser does this occur??

I had a similar problem with another site at my previous job and was told it was the ISP that was creating the problem. The employer had not block on the site and the site was properly configured as to not have such issues.

Even so, I'll take a look into this and see what I can find out. Anyone else having problem with access??

Lyte

[racknrail]

We only have IE at work. I have been able to access this site for ages from work. It's been only until a couple of weeks ago that I have been receiving this error. Our systems admin assures me nothing has changed on our part.

Since I work for the government we do have serious security in place, but that only blocks porn and other questionable sites, which then would display a red screen of death with a government logo. This is different. It's a 403 error which generates at the hosts end, pc101. Like I mentioned, I can access all my other forums from work, as usual, as well as other various web pages.

I am also sure the ISP is not blocking our T1 connection in any way. I have been working here for many years, even before computers became the common place. I have a very good understanding of what restrictions are in place.

* "403: Forbidden"
* "HTTP Error 403 - Forbidden"

The 403 Forbidden error displays inside the Internet browser window, just as web pages do.
Cause
The 403 Forbidden error is an HTTP status code that means that accessing the page or resource you were trying to reach is absolutely forbidden for some reason.
Resolution

1. The most common reason for a web site to return the 403 Forbidden error is if the URL is pointing to a directory instead of a web page. Check for URL errors and make sure the actual web page is specified.

2. If you're sure the page you're trying to reach is correct, the 403 Forbidden error message may be a mistake. At this point it's probably in your best interest to contact the webmaster or other website contact and inform them of the problem. The webmaster of most Internet sites can be reached via email at , replacing website.com with the actual website name.

I have googled for answers and I have tried various ways to connect to PC101 and all has failed. I will try one more time tomorrow at work and if that fails, I give up.

Thanks for trying




*

[Lyte]

Well, I'd hate to see you give up RnR so quickly! This issue was only just brought to my attention yesterday. But I understand, it's very frustrating to get error messages.

I am still looking into the issue but as of yet, haven't discovered the issue. And, has anyone else advised me of getting 403 error messages. BUT, I'm still looking into and asking questions of others as to what the problem may be.

Lyte

[Lyte]

This is how to address the first issue...

How To Troubleshoot an Error in a URL
Tim Fisher

Few things are more frustrating than when you click a link or type in a lengthy web site address and the page doesn't load. While there are a number of reasons this might happen, often times the URL is simply incorrect.

If there's a problem with a URL, these easy to follow steps will help you find it.

• If you're using the http: portion of the URL, did you include the forward slashes after the colon?
  
  
• Did you remember the www? Some websites require this to load properly.
  
  
• Did you remember the .com, .net, or other top level domain?
  
  
• Did you type the actual page name if necessary? For example, most web pages have specific names that end in .htm or .html, among others.
  
  
• Are you using back slashes \\ instead of the correct forward slashes // after the http: portion of the URL?
  
  
• Check the www. Did you forget a w or add an extra by mistake - wwww?
  
  
• Did you type the correct file extension for the page? For example, there's a world of difference in .html and .htm.
  
  
• If the website is a common one that you're familiar with then double check the spelling. For example, searchr.com is very close to Google, but it won't get you to the popular search engine.
  
  
• If you copied the URL from outside the broswer and pasted it in the address bar, check to see that the entire URL was copied properly. For example, often times the URL in an email message will span two or more lines but only the first line will be pasted in the browser.

You have you tried accessing both the home page and the forum? How about one of the deep thread pages? I'd just emailing yourself at work (if possible) a few URLs to test. I'd be curious know if it's just one page our the whole site/IP that's giving you that message.

I'm putting a ticket in with my hosting provider to see if they can think of anything.

Lyte

[racknrail]

Originally Posted by Lyte

I'm putting a ticket in with my hosting provider to see if they can think of anything.

Lyte

That's very kind of you, Lyte. Thank you.

I will try again tomorrow from work. I did already try just about every URL, slash, dot, and "WWW" I could think of. I also tried the direct link from Google.

I hope to see you tomorrow.

[Lyte]

Hey RnR,

I forgot to ask you... what's the IP address from when you're trying to gain access? It did occur to me that my hosting company may have inadvertently banished your IP, but I forgot to ask for your IP to check! Feel free to PM it to me so I can forward it on to my hosting provider.

Thanks!

Lyte

[racknrail]

I will try to PM it to you later tomorrow.

Originally Posted by Lyte

Hey RnR,

I forgot to ask you... what's the IP address from when you're trying to gain access? It did occur to me that my hosting company may have inadvertently banished your IP, but I forgot to ask for your IP to check! Feel free to PM it to me so I can forward it on to my hosting provider.

Thanks!

Lyte

[Lyte]

I'm pleased to report we got RnR's issue worked out! He's now back up 'n' runnin' on PC101.

[racknrail]

Originally Posted by Lyte

I'm pleased to report we got RnR's issue worked out! He's now back up 'n' runnin' on PC101.

Thank you. Glad to be here.