Monday 10 January 2000

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Sometimes when I try to download a file I am presented with a forbidden (403) error message. What's that all about then?

403 error messages usually appear when you are trying to connect to an access restricted site, irrespective of which download manager you happen to be using. In order to gain access to the file you will require a valid login username and password - these can be entered into the properties menu associated with the file you are attempting to download.

If you are using Flashget, for instance, you can modify the login details by right-clicking on the file in question and selecting 'properties'. Then you would tick the 'login to server' check box and enter the username and password in the fields below. If you do not possess the necessary login details you can contact the administrator of the site to see if it's possible to have your own account setup, yet very often if a site requires you to login before being able to download, you shouldn't be there in the first place.

On other occasions the file isn't really inaccessible due to username/password restrictions, but nevertheless, your download manager reports the problem as a 403 error. Getright is one such program known to be guilty of this. Luckily a workaround to this dilemma has been discovered. Open the 'advanced configuration' tab, click on the 'more' button and choose either 'generated from the download URL' or 'random from the download URL' from within the 'Protocols' tab.

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