Worried About a Website Error Message? Sometimes It’s Not Your Fault

How to decipher browser status codes on the internet

Edward C. Baig,

AARP

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Published January 07, 2025

Photo Collage: AARP; (Source: Getty Images (2))

I sometimes get an error message, such as 403 Forbidden, when I go to websites. How do I prevent this and any other notification that keeps me from opening a webpage? — Dottie S.

Dottie, the geeks of tech never cease to outdo themselves. I hope you’re detecting my sarcasm here.

The message sounds ominous: If you’re able to somehow penetrate this forbidden fortress, you either would step on an online landmine or discover the internet’s deepest darkest secrets.

403 Forbidden was even the title for an episode of last decade’s TV techno-thriller Mr. Robot on USA Network.

403 Forbidden is one of scores of error codes

The benign nonfiction is that the 403 Forbidden message is but one of dozens, even scores, of confusing HTTP status codes folks may come upon when trying to visit a website, each signifying some kind of error. These have been around for years.

HTTP, which stands for hypertext transfer protocol, can be loosely defined as a set of rules that govern how your web browser communicates with a website.

403 Forbidden is generally triggered because you don’t have a green light to go any further at a given site. It won’t always say forbidden; 403 codes may appear as 403 Request Refused, 403 Access Denied or something else entirely.

Other relatively common status-code roadblocks you may encounter include 400 Bad Request, 401 Unauthorized, 404 Not Found and 408 Request Timeout. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority has a long list of status codes for webpages that don’t pop up in a timely manner.

You could have received a 403 message because uber-sensitive files truly are on the other side of the door and you haven’t been granted permission to see them.

But you could have been delivered the 403 or other status codes because of technical snags a web developer is grappling with. Under these circumstances, you can do nothing but exercise patience and try later.

Yet another possibility: You’re trying to see content in a foreign country where some websites are off limits. If that’s the case, you may be able to access the site by logging into it with a virtual private network or VPN that can make it appear as if you are in your home country.

Try looking at your URL again, dumping cookies

Of course, we sometimes trigger the error ourselves.

Are you certain you entered the correct URL or web address? Look closely for typos, missing forward slashes, proper capitalization, “.net” instead of “.com.”

Meanwhile, if you’ve copied and pasted the URL from someplace else, make sure you’ve captured the entire string of characters and not left something out. It occasionally happens to me: An address I think I’ve copied spills over into more than one line or is longer than what’s visible in the URL field, so I didn’t get the whole thing.

If all else fails, try clearing the cookies, the set of tracking files your web browser typically accumulates to remind a site who you are and perhaps the reason you’ve stopped by.

Ask the Tech Guru

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s why you may not have to reenter your log-in credentials during subsequent visits or find items again that you had left in your online shopping cart.

Sometimes though, a new version of a web page bumps heads against a cache stashed with older crumbs of files, generating a status error. Methods of clearing a cache vary by browser and device type, so check out the instructions that pertain to your situation.

Bonus tip: Pay attention to ‘http’ and ‘https’

You don’t have to type a “www” in your browser before the name of a website you’re visiting, or type the “http,” two forward slashes and the site name. Modern browsers handle all that for you.

But look for an “S” after http if you’re not certain about a webpage you’ve landed on. That S stands for secure and indicates that the data transfer to the site is encrypted. You’ll see “https” as part of AARP’s web addresses and at most other legitimate web destinations.

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Edward C. Baig covers technology and other consumer topics. He previously worked for USA Today, BusinessWeek, U.S. News & World Report and Fortune, and is author of Macs for Dummies and coauthor of iPhone for Dummies and iPad for Dummies. Follow him on LinkedIn; Threads; and X, formerly known as Twitter.