Why is my website showing a 403 Error?

If the following (or similar) message appears after uploading your website a couple of things can be happening:

You are not authorized to view this page. You might not have permission to view this directory or page using the credentials you supplied. If you believe you should be able to view this directory or page, please try to contact the Web site by using any e-mail address or phone number that may be listed on the personal.fredsmith.com home page. You can click Search to look for information on the Internet. HTTP Error 403 – Forbidden

If your account is hosted on a Apache based server the following things can be happening:

• server permissions aren’t allowing the request from being executed
• your index.php isn’t configured to be an allowed directory index
• the underlying filesystem isn’t allowing Apache access to the files requested
• If you have checked all these settings and everything seems to be set up correctly you’d best contact your hosting provider for support.