Q. What does HTTP error 403 mean?

A. This means that the owner of the site has turned off permissions for either that page or its parent directory. If you get this error message and really want to see the page, you should contact the owner of the site and tell them what URL you were trying to access when you got the 403 error. Permissions get changed as much by accident as on purpose; the author might appreciate knowing.

A quick note about determining the owner of a page:
If the URL is simply http://www.something.com/, it's a good idea to write to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it However, if the URL is for example http://homepages.visp.co.nz/~bobsmith/, you need to write This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it A URL with a tilde ( ~ ) in it indicates that the owner is simply one user on a larger system.