403 Forbidden error when updating product

Verdict came back from tech support... "This was due to a problem with the way Apache works on this server. I've corrected it..."

Yeah, when they admit it's their fault, all of a sudden they are far less specific... I'm going to see if I can get any more information, but whatever "it" was, it's fixed.

It would seem that the problems were due to incorrect paths being used. Probably due to a previous and recent change or software upgrade by your Hoster, since the problems started without any changes by yourself.

Would also seem your Hoster created the problems and presumably, they have now corrected them. If all is well once again then that is good.

How do I get to the ".htaccess file?
I am getting this message when I try to add a product.

The webpage cannot be found
HTTP 404
Most likely causes:
There might be a typing error in the address.
If you clicked on a link, it may be out of date.

What you can try:
Retype the address.

 Go back to the previous page. 

 Go to  and look for the information you want.  

 More information 

This error (HTTP 404 Not Found) means that Internet Explorer was able to connect to the website, but the page you wanted was not found. It's possible that the webpage is temporarily unavailable. Alternatively, the website might have changed or removed the webpage.

For more information about HTTP errors, see Help.

TheHYPO:

Verdict came back from tech support... "This was due to a problem with the way Apache works on this server. I've corrected it..."

Yeah, when they admit it's their fault, all of a sudden they are far less specific... I'm going to see if I can get any more information, but whatever "it" was, it's fixed.
Same thing here, today. Unfortunately, DrByte's excellent suggestion no longer works so I need to wait for webhost's support to answer the ticket I opened.

But in the webhost support forum, they already admitted that they have been experimenting with some mod_security rules... this is a production server, business account... Unbelievable.

DrByte:

I suspect your server may have a mod_security setting active which is trying to protect against the use of any "reserved words".

Yesterday I began getting the forbidden access message while entering a new product. I suspected a word filter someplace as I've seen this before on a wiki. In posting the same new product as little information as possible was used to get the record started and saved. Then, updating the record, adding in the rest of the information one sentence at a time until the message reappeared - which it did on this sentence:

There are hundreds of selected quotes from the Cayce materials too.

All the sentences before and after the above words were accepted without error. I do not understand why any of these words would trigger or trip a filter. Anyone got any ideas?

The word "SELECT" is commonly used in attempted SQL Injections. Maybe the mod_security rules are flagging that?

It is very strange but i also have the 403 Forbidden error when updating product, appeared yesterday...
And Dr Byte's solution doesn't seem to work for me :cry:

I was having this same problem! Sporadically on different websites when I tried to update an ezpage or product listing....it would error out. After trying several things and talking to website hosting support. I figured out that the word SELECT or SELECTION was indeed the culprit! When I deleted those words....it would update correctly when added back in, the error page.

I sent off the problem to support and hopefully it will all get fixed up now!

Many thanks to Dr. Byte....I would have NEVER thought that it was one word that was the problem!

=0)

I tried change it. Now i happy because I have overcome 403 Forbidden error when updating product