IIS 7.5 - 403 Forbidden

Question

Ok, I have scoured online resources and applied all the suggested solutions.

I am setting up a simple website on Windows Server 2008 R2 under IIS 7.5 using the \"ASP

Answer 1

Another possible issue which leads to a 403 error:

The Global.asax file is missing.

Answer 2

I was facing issue on windows 7 and surprisingly it was fixed after installing service pack 1

Answer 3

You might also get this if setting up FTP for a website and you try and change the default directory for FTP on the website.

From what I can tell:

Manage FTP Site -> Advanced Settings -> Physical Path

is the same

Manage Website -> Advanced Settings -> Physical Path

Changing one will change the other and possibly cause a 403 on a working site.

Answer 4

Check that IP address restrictions are not blocking the request. Can check this in the logs.

(This was my embarrassing reason!)

Answer 5

For me, there was a vestigial Web.config in C:\inetpub\wwwroot with rewrite rules. Deleting it solved the problem.

Answer 6

Ok, I am quite embarrassed but the over sight was that "Require SSL" was checked by default and that is the place I did not check. I guess it is because an SSL is bound to the Default Web Site. Removing that check made it work.

Hopefully this will help someone else.