Server denying site access

[richards1052]

I've heard from several readers that their access to my site is being blocked by my server. Some people (but not all) get error messages saying "You're not authorized to view this page--HTTP Error 403." Others get this message "The website declined to show this webpage." Based on the error msgs. if anyone has any ideas what may be preventing access to some (but not all) readers, I'd be eager to hear yr ideas.

[longen]

I don't know offhand, but obvious questions would be -
Were those users able to access the site previously.
How do they access the site - by typing in a url or by clicking on a link.
Are they trying to access restricted directories/files.
Have you checked your htAccess file.
Are users based in certain countries.
Are the problems transient
Have you checked server headers for those pages.
Have you checked servers logs for status codes.
Has the html been validated.
Which browsers are they using.

[piatkow]

I would check out restricted directories as the first possibility.

This is a common problem with some free hosts where the home page is predefined as index.html or index.htm and users then call the page home.html instead.