Can't reply in a thread

[Narkis]

I've ran into a peculiar problem today. I'm trying to post a reply on this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7443808#post7443808), and the site won't let me. I've written my post, but when I hit preview or submit it sends me to a "403 Forbidden" error page that says:

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /forums/newreply.php on this server.
Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat) Server at www.giantitp.com Port 80


This only happens with that specific thread. I have no problem previewing a post in other threads, and as this thread will hopefully show, posting new ones.

edit: It worked! So I do have a problem only with that specific thread.

[Douglas]

This usually means there is something in your post that the server objects to, probably due to overzealous security filters. For example "lynx " (the space is important) anywhere in your post will cause this problem (if you take out the color tag I used to bypass it), as that is part of a protocol that could be used to circumvent security on carelessly set up web sites. The filter the hosting company of this site uses is not smart enough to realize that this server does not have lynx software installed or that your submission will be treated as pure text and not scanned for file transfer commands.

There are a fair number of other things the security filter blocks, and the contents of your post are not always the only factor - past experience has shown that sometimes what one user cannot post gets posted with no trouble if someone else tries it.

[Narkis]

Thanks a lot, that very word was the culprit. It accepted my post after I removed it. Problem solved.

[PhoenixRivers]

I'm running a PbP game in the games section, and I recently tried to post, and started getting this.


Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /forums/newreply.php on this server.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat) Server at www.giantitp.com Port 80

What's up with this?

[Icewalker]

Does your post contain the word lynx?

[Keris]

You know, there was a thread on this exact error a couple of days ago. I'll copy the explanation across for you.

This usually means there is something in your post that the server objects to, probably due to overzealous security filters. For example "lynx " (the space is important) anywhere in your post will cause this problem (if you take out the color tag I used to bypass it), as that is part of a protocol that could be used to circumvent security on carelessly set up web sites. The filter the hosting company of this site uses is not smart enough to realize that this server does not have lynx software installed or that your submission will be treated as pure text and not scanned for file transfer commands.

There are a fair number of other things the security filter blocks, and the contents of your post are not always the only factor - past experience has shown that sometimes what one user cannot post gets posted with no trouble if someone else tries it.

[lesser_minion]

In essence, the server will 403 you if it thinks it is under attack - either because your post appears to contain a command ("lynxs", for example), or because it thinks your IP is dangerous (which could happen because of attackers spoofing their IP address, or if you're on something like a corporate or university network where someone probably has, at some point in the past, got drunk and done something really stupid).

In reality, you can be 403'd for almost any reason imaginable - basically, it's the server deciding that it doesn't like you and doesn't care who you are. It has a reason for doing it (even though you are, presumably, a perfectly nice person), but its reasoning might be a bit dodgy. The server software has been set up to block certain text, but doesn't have any way of telling whether or not that text would compromise security.

In theory, the error code sent to your browser could have given you more information - when a 403 is issued, the server should make some effort to explain why.

The Wikipedia article on 403 Forbidden is here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_403)

[Athaniar]

That means I should avoid "L-cat" animal companions, right? Good thing I chose a monitor for my current game...

[lesser_minion]

That means I should avoid "L-cat" animal companions, right? Good thing I chose a monitor for my current game...

Pretty much, although as long as you remember to stick a meaningless tag in the middle it shouldn't be an issue - e.g. "Lynxe"

[BizzaroStormy]

whats a Lynx?

Edit: seems to work fine for me.

[Keris]

A lynx (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx) is a large wild cat, but it's also the name of a file transfer protocol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_%28protocol%29) and a programming language (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_%28programming_language%29).
And note that "lynx " is filtered, not "lynx". You post didn't include the space after the word lynx, so it wasn't affected.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

A lynx (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx) is a large wild cat, but it's also the name of a file transfer protocol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_%28protocol%29) and a programming language (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_%28programming_language%29).
And a Web browser (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_(browser)). As well as a whole host of other things (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_(disambiguation)).