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Why do Chatropolis entry pages give "403 Forbidden" error on all browsers?

I've been running Mac OS 10.4.11 successfully since it's release, and I normally have the following browsers installed & working: Safari 3.1.1 (my default/first choice), Safari 2.0.4, Firefox 2.0.0.14, and the PC version of Internet Explorer (6.0.2) which I can run in Windows 2000 under Virtual PC 7.0.2 emulation.

Suddenly, 2 days ago, for no reason at all, the ability of my Mac to access any of the chatroom entry pages on the chatropolis.com website stopped working. (Please be warned - BEFORE you visit chatropolis.com - that it primarily hosts ADULT chatrooms!). This is after many years of problem-free access to these pages, using my current Mac, and previous Macs.

I can still access the home page, the user list pages, etc., but trying to access the room entry pages for any chatroom at all gives a simple black page with white text, which reads:

403 Forbidden
You are not authorized to access this resource.

____________

The entry pages all take the form http://csX.chatropolis.com/enter/roomname

where "X" is the server number that the particular room is hosted on (normally "7" or "10") and "roomname" is the name of the chatroom that I'm trying to enter. For example, the URL of the room entry page for the room "Current Events" is http://cs10.chatropolis.com/enter/currentevents

I can access any page on the Chatropolis site that DOESN'T start http://csX.chatropolis.com/enter/....... but none of the pages that DO start this way!

This occurs whichever browser I use, and even occurs using the PC version of Internet Explorer 6.0.2 running under Virtual PC emulation!

I've tried all of the following to solve the problem, but nothing works:

I've tried deleting both Safari 3.1.1 & Safari 2.0.4, and then reinstalling Safari 3.1.1.

I've purged all the caches, cookies, browsing histories, etc. of all my browsers, both within the browsers themselves, and by using Intego Washing Machine 1.1 (which comes free with Intego NetBarrier 5). I do this purging regularly anyway.

I've restarted the Mac several times.

Using Disk Utility, I've repaired permissions on the boot HD several times. I've verified the boot HD, and no problems were found.

I've rebooted the Mac from my Alsoft DiskWarrior 4.0 CD and successfully run "Repair Disk Permissions" and "Check All Files & Folders" on all my hard drives, including the boot disk, and I've successfully rebuilt & replaced the directories on all the drives.

I've successfully accessed the pages in question using a friends Mac, who lives very nearby, and uses the same product (2 MB cable broadband internet connection) from the same ISP as me.

I've searched for all files on my Mac that have a modification date of 2 days ago, and deleted any that are in any way relevant to web browsers.

I've emailed the owner of Chatropolis (Michael Ludwick) and asked for his help. He thought that maybe I'd installed some software prior to the problem arising, but this isn't the case. He also dismissed my theory that my ISP might be blocking access for some reason. On the day I first emailed him (Sunday), he told me that there had been over 700,000 successful logins, and that I was the only person to contact technical support that day saying that I couldn't gain access. He tells me that "The error page actually resides on your machine so the src isn't important" even though the colour scheme of the error page matches every other error page on Chatropolis!

I now suspect that the problem lies in the part of the Mac OS which is activated when certain types of pages on the internet are accessed, whichever browser makes the call - some deep part of the OS that is normally invisible to the user, and has to function normally for certain types of internet access to take place.

All non-entry pages on Chatropolis work perfectly, as do all other websites, as does sending & receiving email.

Everything is bang up-to-date with Software Update. Nothing was installed or removed prior to the problem occurring.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be very grateful. I'm no UNIX geek, but I've been using the Mac OS since the System 6 days, and I know my way around it pretty well. I'd rather venture into the dark abyss that is Terminal and perform some sort of command line fix than have to reinstall the entire OS!

I've read many times over the years that Mac OS X performs housekeeping/janatorial tasks "overnight" from time to time, but I never leave my Mac on overnight. It's shutdown & restarted at least once a day. Is there perhaps one of these "housekeeping" tasks that has never been performed, and that should be, that might solve the problem? If so, how do I force these tasks to be performed immediately, to see if that helps?

Many thanks in advance for any constructive input!

Power Mac G4 Dual 1.25GHz (Mirror Drive Doors - no FireWire 800), Mac OS X (10.4.11), 2Gb RAM, 3 internal hard drives, 23" Cinema HD Display (1920x1200 resolution, plastic bezel)

Posted on May 20, 2008 11:08 AM

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Posted on May 20, 2008 3:04 PM

Hi Diamond Dave,

Let me preface my reply with the fact that I am not that knowledgable about error problems but I wanted to suggest that you look toward Apache as the problem. I believe "403 Forbidden" errors are Apache errors.

I doubt running the cron scripts will help (the scripts that are run during the nightime hours when your computer is awake) but you can run these by following the directions in Dr. Smoke's FAQ found at:

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/maintscripts.html

sorry I can't be of anymore help than that,

littleshoulders 🙂
35 replies
Question marked as Best reply

May 20, 2008 3:04 PM in response to Diamond Dave

Hi Diamond Dave,

Let me preface my reply with the fact that I am not that knowledgable about error problems but I wanted to suggest that you look toward Apache as the problem. I believe "403 Forbidden" errors are Apache errors.

I doubt running the cron scripts will help (the scripts that are run during the nightime hours when your computer is awake) but you can run these by following the directions in Dr. Smoke's FAQ found at:

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/maintscripts.html

sorry I can't be of anymore help than that,

littleshoulders 🙂

May 20, 2008 5:07 PM in response to littleshoulders

Hi

Thanks for the advice. I used the instructions on the webpage you mentioned to run all the cron scripts. All I had to do to accomplish this was to open Terminal, type "sudo periodic daily weekly monthly", press return, put in my Admin password, press return, and then wait for 4 or 5 minutes until the Terminal prompt returned. Easy!

Unfortunately doing this didn't solve the problem, as you suspected, but at least I now know about cron scripts & how to manually run them!

You mentioned that Apache might be causing the problem. Apache is yet another thing that I've heard of but know nothing about. What is it & how do I troubleshoot it?

Many thanks

May 22, 2008 5:43 AM in response to Diamond Dave

I've just tried something else that's not helped - downloading & installing the Mac OS X 10.4.11 Combo Update (PPC) from www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx10411comboupdateppc.html and installing it over the top of my OS, even though I was already running 10.4.11. I thought doing this might refresh any parts of the OS that had become corrupted, but it's made no difference.

May 22, 2008 8:40 AM in response to Diamond Dave

I just want to let you know that I'm having the VERY same problem on an XP operating system as of yesterday. I tried 2 computers and Foxfire and IE. I can't even get to Chatropolis support. If you solve this let me know. The wording of the error I get is "Firefox can't find the server at cs10.chatropolis.com." I found your post through google. I wonder about my ISP blocking it. Thanks and good luck. I'll keep my eye out here.

May 22, 2008 12:48 PM in response to sig

Looking in that folder on my boot drive shows 25 items. The only ones that have modification dates of this month are the QuickTime plug-in, which is at version 7.4.5, and 2 aliases to the RealPlayer plug-ins. Everything else is dated prior to this month, which to me implies that they have remained the same both prior to the problem occurring, and afterwards. In other words, they are irrelevant. In any case, according to the Chatropolis home page, "You do not need any plugins or Java to chat at Chatropolis." In other words, it all works with pure HTML. I really don't see how plug-ins can be relevant.

May 22, 2008 4:25 PM in response to Diamond Dave

Partly due to some of the things suggested for a different (but related) thread by Charlie Minow (see http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1494925) and partly due to what I read in the last 2 paragraphs of http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25508 I decided to once again delete Safari 3.1.1, but this time, before I re-installed it, I also deleted the WebKit.framework folder, located in the Macintosh HD->System->Library->Frameworks folder.

Reinstalling Safari 3.1.1 appears to have recreated a fresh copy of the WebKit.framework folder and all it's contents, in the correct place. Needless to say, as ever, this hasn't solved the problem...

May 22, 2008 7:15 PM in response to Diamond Dave

Diamond Dave wrote:
Reinstalling Safari 3.1.1 appears to have recreated a fresh copy of the WebKit.framework folder and all it's contents, in the correct place. Needless to say, as ever, this hasn't solved the problem...


Hmm. Wish I'd seen your posts earlier, I could have saved you some trouble. It's nothing on your machine. It's a problem at Chatropolis. I am able access a page on one of the two machines, the one at cs10.chatropolis.com. But the one at cs7.chatropolis.com, while the server is there, and can be pinged, sends back a "404 - not found" response.

No matter what the owner says, these errors are server errors on his end, and have nothing to do with any settings on your computer. He's simply mistaken when he says they are coming off your computer. It's possible that he's confused by how Internet Explorer on Windows can be set up so that it will give you an error page that looks a lot like the same error page you'll get from a Windows IIS server. Or he simply doesn't know the technical details.

But it doesn't look like he's running a Windows IIS server, either. According to the headers on his servers, they're running something called "IFCS", which a little digging shows to be something owned by his company.

charlie

May 23, 2008 8:30 AM in response to Charles Minow

Hi Charlie

Many thanks for your reply. The 2 things that I suspected to be the case have turned out to be true - that you'd know what was going on, and that the problem is at the Chatropolis end! I'm going to email Michael Ludwick (the Chatropolis owner) again, quoting what you said, and giving him the link to this entire thread. I'll report back once there's been some progress.

May 23, 2008 9:07 AM in response to Bill Da Cat

Hi Bill Da Cat

You can email Chatropolis technical support at priority-customer@interfun.net, or Michael Ludwick (the Chatropolis owner) at mludwick@interfun.net

As I mentioned in my previous post to Charlie Minow, I'm about to email Michael Ludwick, quoting what Charlie said, and giving him the link to this entire thread. I'll report back once there's been some progress.

Why do Chatropolis entry pages give "403 Forbidden" error on all browsers?

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