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I can't access my files (Access Forbidden! Error 403).

If you see an error as below, it is very likely that you uploaded your files to the server using port 21 instead of 3501 for NetID accounts and 3500 for NonNetID accounts. Please follow the FTP Instructions to set up the FTP connection and after that refer to this link to upload them correctly.

file_permission_error

 

What are file permissions? Why do we need them? 

File permissions are necessary to protect and to instruct the server about how to handle certain files. They can be set using raw FTP commands, but the easiest way to set them is using an inbuilt tool from your FTP client. This is where some FTP clients do not support the changing of permissions on files. One good example is the built-in FTP client in Dreamweaver, which will only allow you to set permissions using a specific raw FTP command. If you have multiple files and folders to set permissions on, typing the FTP command multiple times would become tedious.

It is a good idea to become at least a little familiar with what permissions are used for what purpose. The reason for this is that most scripts will actually need certain permissions to run. If they are simply uploaded as normal by say, Dreamweaver, they will inherit 'normal' permissions by default, but it may not be suitable in order to actually 'run' or 'execute' the commands that are inside the script. Most default permissions will only allow you to read a file, which will unfortunately not be enough to run a script.
The most common permission required to run a script is CHMOD 755 (-rwx r-x r-x)

What's CHMOD?
CHMOD stands for Change Mode and simply means that you are changing your permissions on the file or folder. "CHMOD" is also a UNIX command that is used in code and through the command line to change permissions on files and folders.


Types of permissions for different user groups