Knowledgebase

When I try and view my website I get an HTTP Error 403 - Forbidden message.

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. Common default names are index.php, default.htm, index.htm and index.html - The first page of your website should use one of these names, with all lowercase letters.

When we create your web hosting account, we place a simple index.html 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 in you site is called index.html and that the file is uploaded to the public_html directory.