What does 403 forbidden mean
403 Error or 403 forbidden error simply indicates that you don’t have permission to access on that particular server or a web page that you are requesting for. This error appears in the browser window when you are trying to access the resource in which you don’t have permission to access. The 403 error means you are declined to access on that server or a particular server or web page, and the server is not giving you permission to access that resource. There maybe 750 or 700 permission on the server that means the first 7 is for the admin user and the other two for the group and other users of the site or for a normal user on the website. The number 0 indicates no permission that maybe cause of your problem. If you are an admin on the server then you can set the permissions as :
Directories and folders must be 755. 755 Stands For: Owner/Admin: read, write, execute Group: read, execute Everyone/normal User: read, execute
Executable scripts within the cgi-bin folder must be 755.
Images, media, and text files like HTML should be 755 or 644. 644 Stands For: Owner/Admin: read, write. Group: read. Everyone/normal User: read
On different browsers, there are several ways to show this error and you can have 403 error as follows:
403 Forbidden
HTTP 403
Forbidden: You don't have permission to access [directory] on this server
Forbidden
Error 403
HTTP Error 403.14 - Forbidden
Error 403 - Forbidden
HTTP Error 403 - Forbidden
How to fix 403 forbidden issue:
If you are a regular user on that website then you can resolve this by using these simple methods:
1. Checking the URL of the resource
The initial step you should take when having this 403 forbidden error is checking the URL or that resource you are trying to access.
Most websites do not allow accessing a directory or to directly browse so if you are trying to access a directory on the website then it can’t be fixed until the administrator of that site gives you access.
2. Clear your browser’s cache
Cache data is used for storing the temporary files from websites like HTML files, javascript and other media content like images that are used to load a website faster.
By Clearing your browser’s cache data you can solve this problem.
As there are several browsers available out there like Google Chrome, Opera, Safari, Firefox, Edge. We have listed how to clear data on these browsers in this post. you can use this to clear your cache data.
3. Clear your browser’s cookies
Cookies on browsers are those files that contain information about every website you have visited and the actions you performed on those websites. It contains the data like login credentials for every particular website in which you have made your account and other information you have filled on the website.
You can clear your browser Cookies to get rid of this error. If you don’t know how to clear cookies on any browser then you can read in this post.
4. Contact Website administrators or moderators
There can be a possibility when you are blocked from that website and that is why you getting this error on your browser’s window. you may be blocked for a reason or by mistake, but to solve this issue if there is such situation and the above methods are not working then the best and only solution is to contact website administrator or moderator who can enable your IP and give you access again or if there is no such situation of getting blocked from website then you will probably get answer about the exact issue and reason for that from the administrator and why not, if you are a genuine user of that website then they probably need you.
Tip: Most of the times these kinds of error like 403 forbidden error can be happened due to some server load, some mistake by admin or some specific server problem but if you are having this error on any regular and popular website then to confirm what is actually the cause of the problem, you must have to join and see all the social media pages like Twitter and Facebook to get the update information and site related issues or maybe you will find some other people on social media talking about the same issue if you are not having that problem only on your own.