403 Forbidden Nginx: what is it and how to fix the situation?

Both ordinary users and webmasters are often faced with the problem of access to individual pages or even entire sites on the Internet. In this case, instead of the requested resource, a 403 Forbidden Nginx crashes in a web browser. What is this error and how to fix it, read on. In the article, we will offer solutions for both ordinary users and site administrators.

What does 403 Forbidden Nginx mean?

The very nature of the error lies in the fact that when you try to call a page hosted on a site that runs on the Nginx web server, it is impossible to access it. There can be many reasons for this.

403 forbidden nginx

But the message itself in the literal sense does not indicate an error. The fact is that 403 Forbidden Nginx is a regular status code for the status of a resource. Most often, such a warning is issued on Ubuntu systems, but on Windows it can also be seen.

Reasons for the failure of users and webmasters

As for the reasons causing the appearance of such a status code, they can be conditionally divided into two types that relate to groups of ordinary users and web administrators.

In the case of ordinary users, the following reasons are called:

  • violations in the operation of the Internet resource itself;
  • entering an incorrect website address;
  • resource blocking (for example, according to the directives of Roskomnadzor);
  • blocking the user or IP of his computer in connection with violations of the rules of the site (ban);
  • browser errors (cookies, cache, etc.).

403 forbidden nginx error

For the administrator group, the reasons for the 403 Forbidden Nginx warning appear slightly differently:

  • Using an incorrect name or a damaged index page main file
  • opening a directory for which Autoindex is set to Off;
  • lack of correct rights to the folder;
  • Incorrect file path
  • Error updating DNS cache when changing hosting;
  • prohibition of viewing contents in the .htaccess file or in the general server configuration.

In this situation, both groups can use several unified solutions to correct the situation.

Forbidden Nginx Error 403: How to Fix a User?

If the failure is temporary, it is usually sufficient to simply restart the computer system. If this does not help, the following can be recommended as universal solutions:

  • check the spelling of the address of the resource so that it does not have capital letters and symbols in Cyrillic;
  • clear the cookies and web browser cache;
  • try using a different browser;
  • make sure that you are not banned from the site;
  • try using access using utilities to hide your external IP (Free Hide IP);
  • contact the administration of the resource and specify the problem of its performance;
  • wait a while and try to access again if the problem is with the functionality of the Internet resource.

Some Webmaster Fix Tips

what 403 forbidden nginx means

To fix the 403 Forbidden Nginx failure, administrators will find the following tips useful:

  • check the correctness of the name of the index files index.html, index.htm, index.php, index.shtml, etc., so that they do not have capital letters or Cyrillic characters;
  • set access rights to folder 755, to files - 644;
  • check the correctness of the specified paths to files and directories;
  • pause for about a day if the problem is that the DNS cache did not have time to update;
  • add the line Options + Indexes to the .htaccess file;
  • if the root directory is called Home, rename the page according to standards and in the .htaccess file write the line DirectoryIndex home.php.

That, in principle, is all that relates to the main reasons for the appearance of the 403 code and methods for overcoming this situation. As can be seen from the foregoing, there is nothing particularly catastrophic in such a failure (in particular, for ordinary users). But when eliminating the problem at any level, you need to consider all the factors that could become the root cause of this situation.

With users, everything is simple, but administrators in some cases will have to sweat, as they say.


All Articles