Hi there,
Would anyone be so kind as to give me some advice about receiving a 403 Forbidden error when people are registering at my archive? I've had this archive up for a long time and this is the first time I've encountered this problem. Apparently, (based on the action log), some people are able to register, but others are not. When I went to test register I got this message:
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /archive/user.php on this server.
Does anyone have any ideas why this would be an issue for some people and not others? I thought it might have something to do with the htaccess file, but I cleared all denied IPs and it's still not working for me...
Story upload seems to be working fine for people...
URL to your eFiction: http://worldsfinest.comicslash.com/archive/index.php
Version of eFiction: 3.5.1
Have you bridged eFiction, if so with what?: Nope.
Version of PHP: can be found out from your host: PHP Version 5.2.13
Version of MySQL: can be found out from your host: 5.1.30
Have you searched for your problem: (yes/no) Yes. I found 403 errors relating to story upload, but that's not my problem.
If so, what terms did you try: 403 error
State the nature of your problem: Copy and paste any errors you are receiving. See above.
Do you have a test account for us? No.
Thanks in advance!
It's probably related to the old forbidden words problem we see mostly when submitting stories. Some hosts forbid certain words from being submitted on their server for security. It's usually the words "curl" or "lynx" but sometimes there are others. Do a search for "curl" in the forums and wiki for more info. You'll probably have to talk to your host and the people having these issues to figure out what exactly is being forbidden.
Thank you so much for responding. I did see this word issue in the forums regarding story uploads but I didn't see how it could apply during the registration process. There's only email addresses and user names during registration. I don't know what to do about this issue, it seems so strange...
"Python" was also a problem at my old server. It could happen if someone put one of the words in any of the registration fields. How many aren't able to register, versus those who can? The best way to check if this is the problem is ask your hosting company for a list of words that cause problems - some will have one already drawn up. Then ask the people who can't register what info they're entering and see if you get matches. Here's what I have in my site's FAQ section. (Note that adding the HTML <!> won't work in fields that don't support HTML, which is essentially everything BUT the story text box and custom pages.)
When I submit a story I get this message: Forbidden You don't have permission to access /stories.php on this server.
Solution:
A 403 error is usually caused by certain forbidden words in the story text. The known ones are curl, lynx, and python. These are all related to the server settings. But, you ask, how did I get them to show up here? You could check the source of the page to see, but basically I added something to the middle that only shows up in the source code and not when the page is viewed. I merely added <!> in the middle of the word. In doing so, you're breaking up the word with a bit of code that doesn't show up in a browser (I added another one to that one to make it appear). If none of those words are in your story, but you still have trouble, try (starting from the end) deleting a paragraph and hitting preview, then if the error persists, hit back, delete the next paragraph, etc., until it works. Then you'll have narrowed down where the problem is, and can try deleting word by word until you figure it out. Then you can add the <!> to that word. (And please submit a support ticket, so the knowledgebase can be updated.)
