I am running Apache 1.3.33 with several Virtual Hosts. Up until a few days ago, I was able to access all hosts either from within my local network (which is behind a firewall), or from other remote locations (i.e., internet cafes, from VPNs, etc.)

Now, for whatever reason, there is one of my Virtual Host sites that I cannot access from within my local network using the FQDN. The other websites I can get to just fine using their FQDNs, but this particular one can only be accessed from outside the local network.

The Apache access logs show that I am getting a 403 (Forbidden) error when trying to access it from the local network, but I have no idea what is causing this or how to fix it. The pages that seem to be having the problem are .php pages (static .html pages load just fine). However, it is only this one site that is affected. The other sites also have .php pages, and they can be accessed without any problems.

This problem is driving me nuts. I have checked httpd.conf, routing, and the firewall for some reason, but have been unable to come up with anything.

Can anyone offer any advice on how to correct this issue? I will be happy to supply whatever is needed.

I hope someone can help me with this maddening problem!

Have you checked file ownerships and permissions between directories?

Add some more logging and look at the errors log file,
or start httpd with the -X option and watch for debug messages.

Do you have a .htaccess file in the directory that's causing you problems?

I have checked and double-checked permissions, but haven't discovered any problems. Error logging hasn't really done any good, since this isn't really an error condition. The 403 messages wouldn't normally be indicative of a problem (except in this case!). The debugging option sounds interesting, but I'm not sure where it would place the logs I would need to examine.

I also looked for .htaccess files in the directory. There are none.

Any other suggestions/advice would be appreciated. Also, if you have any additional details on how to enact and access debug on httpd, it would be appreciated.

The -X option when starting apache from a command line stops it from detaching from the terminal, and any messages are printed on the terminal.

I stopped Apache using apachectl, and then tried running httpd -X from a terminal,and then tried accessing the site using my browser; however no messages were produced.

Does

# tail /var/log/httpd/error_log

show anything?

In your httpd.conf you will have specified an ErrorLog file.

tail -f the errorlog file

Well, this is rather embarrassing, but it turns out that it was the web application itself that was preventing me from hitting the site. For whatever reason, it had banned my own internal firewall IP address. The application was the only place I hadn't looked (after all, why would *it* ban *me*?), so I feel kind of stupid at the moment.

I want to thank everyone who responded to this post; I certainly know the ins and outs of troubleshooting Apache logs much better now, although I feel badly that I probably wasted your time. In any case, thanks!