403 error only on select devices

  • Hi Everyone,

    Got a weird one here.

    For the last week I have been getting a 403 error when trying to access 3 of the websites I manage. This just appeared out of no where and seemed at first to be isolated to my WiFi at home.

    The computers I’ve tested on outside of my house are not affected but I am getting calls from some of our clients saying they are seeing the same thing. “Forbidden You don’t have permission to access / on this server.”

    I contacted my host who said they don’t see an issue or any errors on their end.

    I contacted my ISP and they asked me to reset my router which didn’t work. I went out and got a different router which didn’t work either. I think the IP address changed when I swapped out the router but no change. My ISP is now looking into it further but are stumped.

    The good news is if I try to access my sites on my phone on cellular, all 3 sites load fine. I can also access the sites at work, the local swimming pool, coffee shops, etc with WiFi with no problems. I’ve had other people test their computers and devices but they have had no problems accessing the sites. It’s just when trying at home on my wifi here that it’s blocking me. I can only think it’s something to do with my home wifi specifically. This affects my all my devices (Ipad, iPhones and Mac) unless on cel connection.

    I have tried to clear my Caches and tried different browsers including Safari, Chrome and Firefox with the same result.

    I thought it might be one of the common Internet Providers in Canada here but there doesn’t seem to be a common thread with that either.

    I cannot access my login page to be able to try anything from home. I have to access from another computer or my phone on Cellular connection.

    Any ideas to try?

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Moderator Steven Stern (sterndata)

    (@sterndata)

    Volunteer Forum Moderator

    So something is block IP addresses.

    1. Check .htaccess.

    2. Disable ALL plugins; maybe a security plugin you’ve installed is blocking stuff.

    3. Please provide a link to a page on your site where we might see this. Thanks.

    Thread Starter noelwentworth

    (@noelwentworth)

    Thank you Steve!

    That was a huge help. I disabled all plugin’s but had no effect.

    I went in the .htaccess and saw 3 blocked IP’s. I copied the text in this file just in case and then deleted all 3 IP’s i saw in there.

    2 of my websites are now unblocked but one is still getting a 403 error. https://www.noelwentworth.com is still blocked.

    Any further ideas?

    Moderator Steven Stern (sterndata)

    (@sterndata)

    Volunteer Forum Moderator

    What’s in .htaccess for that site now?

    Thread Starter noelwentworth

    (@noelwentworth)

    # Begin cache control #
    ExpiresActive on
    ExpiresActive off
    <FilesMatch “.*”>
    Header unset Cache-Control
    Header unset Expires
    Header unset Last-Modified
    FileETag None
    Header unset Pragma
    </FilesMatch>
    # End cache control #
    # Begin IP blocking #
    Order Allow,Deny
    Allow from all
    # End IP blocking #

    Moderator Steven Stern (sterndata)

    (@sterndata)

    Volunteer Forum Moderator

    well, so much for that theory. Is there any IP blocking in the web server config files?

    Thread Starter noelwentworth

    (@noelwentworth)

    Thank you so much for the help Steve!

    I’ve just spent 2 hours working with tech support to find out the entire site folder is missing?!?!? I backed the whole site but the back up zip file is missing a bunch of files too. I’ve now requested a site roll back to last week. I’m hoping it will solve this issue. This has been an awfully trying week. Unbelievable!

    Thank you again for the help. You taught me a few things!

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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