Webmaster Tools 403 Error for my verification file

Can't figure out why

[Reno]

I am today getting the following message in my Webmaster Tools. This particular site has been verified/crawled by Googlebot without a problem since the sitemap.xml program started, so I'm at a loss what is happening:

"Verification status: NOT VERIFIED
Last attempt May 1, 2007: We've detected that your verification file returns a status of 403 (Forbidden) in the header."

I did some research and found this explanation about the 403 error:

"This indicates a fundamental access problem, which may be difficult to resolve because the HTTP protocol allows the Web server to give this response without providing any reason at all. So the 403 error is equivalent to a blanket 'NO' by your Web server - with no further discussion allowed."

Like most of you, I do block malicious IP crawling but have been very careful to not stop the Googlebot IP, which I find to be consistently in this range:

66.249.65.--
66.249.72.--

QUESTION: Is there any Googlebot IP outside the ranges above? And/or is there any other reason why Webmaster Tools is returning the 403 error?

Thanks for any insight...

ps. To the moderators -- since so many forum visitors use Webmaster Tools, is the time right to give it its own category in the Google section of WebmasterWorld?

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[tedster]

First thing I noticed is that we have another thread with a different re-verification error coming up for lots of people: [webmasterworld.com...] -- maybe something is buggy at Google.

Also, here's a really good thread about verifying googlebot: [webmasterworld.com...]

Since google might introduce a new IP at any time, trying to maintain a whitelist of IP's can get you into trouble.

[Reno]

Thank you Tedster -- this advice from Bill H in the other thread helped solve the problem:

Log out of your Google account...Then log back in and you will suddenly be 'verified'.

In addition to signing out, I also cleared my browser cache, so when I logged back in it was necessary to type in both the email & the password. I then went through the verification process and, incredibly, it was verified. As Bill said, "Weird but it works".

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