Apache doesn't allow non-document-root access in default setup
 

Hey, has anyone else had this problem? I just set up an apache server to run a web site from my computer, and rather than copy all my pictures to /var/www/http/, I symlinked the directory that has them in it. For example, ln -s /home/jenna/pics /var/www/http/pics/ . Now I can connect to my computer from other locations, but whenever click a link to the /pics directory, it says I'm not allowed to access it. I know that read permissions are set to allow everyone on that directory and everything in it. Also, I put <directory> directives in httpd.conf to allow access to /pics. What's wrong?

Make sure you have an the 'Options' directive and the statement 'FollowSymLinks'.

http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.1/mod/core.html#options

I have never used this and if this does not work you may have to set up another directive for this directory.