If when trying to access a web page you receive the HTTP error 403 it generally means that the file or folder you are trying to access has been denied, normally due to security.
If you are the website owner of the web hosting account you can check the error log to make sure that the configuration is correct. To do this simply follow the steps below:
- Login to cPanel
- Locate the "Logs" section
- Click on the icon "Error Log"
The error_log will show you the latest 300 errors from your site
The errors may look like this:
[Mon Dec 02 20:13:16 2013] [error] [client 127.0.0.45] client denied by server configuration: /home/user/public_html/file.php
[Mon Dec 02 20:13:16 2013] [error] [client 127.0.0.76] Directory index forbidden by rule: /home/user/public_html/
If you encounter the errors that are mentioned above you might want to have a look over the .htaccess file to check if you are permitting the IP address mentioned in the error via the .htaccess file. If not you will need to enable this so the server can grant the request.
