SOIS Webspace (How to) Fix the 403 Forbidden Error (Try this second)
This document was written to assist SOIS students in resolving the Forbidden 403 error when visiting their primary domain on soisweb.uwm.edu.
***** UWM VPN Requirement for Administrative Tasks *****
The SOISWEB environment requires a UWM VPN connection (for access off-campus), an on-campus wired connection, or a WiFi connection to UWMWiFi or Eduroam WiFi (not UWMVisitor) for web server administrative tasks such as SFTP/SSH and cPanel web portal access.
Website viewing access on HTTP (port 80) and HTTPS (port 443) is still available from anywhere.
Instructions on installation/setup and usage of the UWM VPN can be found here: VPN Knowledgebase Articles
If you encounter problems connecting to the SOISWEB environment after this change is implemented, please contact the UWM Helpdesk to report the issue.
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Assumptions
- You already have an active account on the soisweb.uwm.edu server.
- You wish to see the index of files and folders when visiting your primary domain but receive the 403 Forbidden error was encountered... error shown below.
Steps to Take
- Open a web browser and go to https://soisweb.uwm.edu/cpanel.
- Log in with your SOISWEB cPanel credentials.
- Click File Manager in the Files section of Tools.
- Click the Settings button (upper right corner of the FileManager).
- Click the checkbox for Show Hidden Files (dotfiles) and click the Save button.
- Click the public_html folder in the left pane.
- Right click the .htaccess file and click Edit.
- Click theEdit button.
- Add in Options +Indexes after the AddHandler line.
- Click the Save Changes button then click the Close button.
- Re-visit your primary domain and you should see something like the image below.
