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The Apache Web server allows site managers to customise error pages for HTTP errors by number. This error 403 access forbidden, means that a request for a "bare" directory path has been made, no default directory index page is present and the site manager does not want a file listing displayed in its place.
Plus other Apache custom error page articles.
This custom error page can be configured with a single line in the .htaccess file for the relevant directory, as shown below. If this instruction is given in the root level document directory, it applies to all subdirectories.
.htaccess
ErrorDocument 403 /error-docs/403.shtml
The file path must lead with a forward slash relative to the document root for the server or virtual host. In this example, error-docs is a sub-directory of the document root.
The custom error document itself should be a standard formatted HTML document that may use Server Side Includes or any other dynamic processing. Bear in mind, however, that if errors occur in the delivery of such dynamic documents your visitors may witness an even less friendly aspect to your site!
Note that this directory level configuration option will only work if index listings are actually forbidden in the server's main configuration file, httpd.conf, or the relevant .htaccess file. This in turn relies upon the AllowOverride values in httpd.conf to include Options or All.
httpd.conf
<Directory /home/~username/webspace>
Options Indexes Includes FollowSymlinks ExecCGI
IndexOptions +FancyIndexing
AllowOverride All
order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>
.htaccess
Options -Indexes
Another way to prevent directory listings is to set the access permissions for a given directory to exclude read access for the "other" user, e.g.
chmod 771 mydirectory
It is essential to retain execute permissions for the other user on directories to allow access to the files and directories within. The resulting permissions should be drwxrwx--x.
.htaccess settings
To enable .htaccess files to override the server's http.conf settings, the default host must have the AllowOverride FileInfo property set in its Directory directive. Your configuration should look something like this:
<Directory "C:/apache/httpd/htdocs/manual"> Options Includes Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews AllowOverride FileInfo Order allow,deny Allow from all </Directory>
If your Web server is issuing HTTP errors, you may find the answer to your problem in the following extract from our extensive FAQ section.
