I recently encoutered a 403/Forbidden problem on my Joomla web site (Joomla 1.0.11). My entire site gave a 403 Forbidden error... including sub-domains. Terrible!

But there IS a way to fix it... so i documented my experiences so that it may help you if you find yourself in a similar position.

CAUSE: Uploading an HTML file from the Joomla backend using the JoomlaXplorer compnent in FTP MODE.

RESOLUTION: I spent 3 or 4 hours reviewing/tinkering with everything from file/folder permissions, .htaccess, SQL database, and even checked to see if my site was 'compromised' by a hacker. Nothing had any effect. I even uploaded a very simple "hello world" HTML file into the root and called it "index.html" and even that would throw a 403/Forbidden. I mostly suspected it was my .htaccess, or at very worst a httpd.conf problem (i host on Apache servers), but commenting out various lines from my .htaccess (including "Options FollowSymLinks") or even removing ALL the content from .htaccess had no effect whatsoever. So i did the next best thing: contacted my web host. He was able to use a Cpanel function to disable, then re-enable my account, and that fixed the permission problems! Neither him nor i can tell you exactly what went wrong... but know that this problem IS fixable by having your host suspend then un-suspent your account through cPanel! Hope this helps! :) Many thanks to Tony at DevotedHost Web Hosting for his dedicated support.